EXCLUSIVE- Egypt in advanced talks on wheat hedge: Egypt is currently in “serious” negotiations with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and a leading Kuwaiti lender about a wheat hedge that would insulate the treasury from fluctuations in global prices, a top aide to Supply Minister Ibrahim El Ashmawy told Enterprise. The aide declined to name the Kuwaiti bank, but suggested the wheat hedge could be a trial balloon for a wider program to hedge against rises the prices of key commodities Egypt imports. The news comes as the Finance Ministry is reportedly mulling a fuel hedge, although remarks by Finance Minister Mohamed Maait last week that downplayed the budgetary impact of the rising price of oil suggest that could be on the back burner for now.

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