SA 2nd largest investor in Egy with $6.1 B | Egy's general budget achieves surplus of LE 10.2 B at 0.1% of GDP | CBE extends 2 initiatives in tourism
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has announced new incentives to support the country’s digital transformation, including cashless transaction adoption, set to last from 1 January – 31 December 2023. Under these incentives, Egyptian pound-backed transactions made online will be exempted from all fees and commissions. Also, all fees and commissions on transactions made through the national Instant Payment Network (IPN) and its related mobile app Instapay powered by the CBE, will be waived.
Saudi Arabia is the second largest investor in Egypt, investing $6.1 billion till now in 6,017 projects in industry, construction, tourism, agriculture, services, finance, communications and information technology, said Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmed Samir on Sunday.
The Minister of International Cooperation announced that in 2022, $13.7 billion was secured to support Egypt’s national development objectives. This included $11.1 billion directed to sovereign projects across various economic activities and $2.6 billion for the private sector. Al-Mashat explained that the $11 billion included $2.4 billion for budget support to be disbursed by June 2023 and directed to expanding social spending including food security, universal health insurance, and social protection programs.
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The monthly report of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance revealed that the state’s general budget achieved a primary surplus of EGP 10.2 billion during the period from July to September of the fiscal year 2022/2023, at a rate of 0.1% of GDP, compared to a deficit of 0.09% during the same period of the previous fiscal year.
The growth came thanks to an increase in budget revenues by 15.6% during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, to reach 258.9 billion pounds, despite the increase in banks by about 19.2% compared to the same period in the last fiscal year.
The Central Bank of Egypt has extended until March 2023 two initiatives supporting companies working in the tourism sector that were initially set to expire at the end of this year. The first initiative allows tourism companies to obtain loans and stipulates that the banks accept the beneficiaries’ requests to delay dues repayment to the banks. The CBE also extended a second initiative meant to provide retail loans to the sector’s workers.
During the three-month period, the banks will be required to carry forward the dues on the initiative’s beneficiaries, particularly for loans obtained by workers for consumption and personal housing.
Scientists don't know but worry that might happen. It could be similar to omicron variants circulating there now. It could be a combination of strains. Or something entirely different, they say.
``China has a population that is very large and there's limited immunity. And that seems to be the setting in which we may see an explosion of a new variant,`` said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.