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Last night’s talk shows covered the confusion surrounding potential electricity price hikes, the Suez Canal company stake sale, and today’s interest rate decision at the central bank — plus a study into Red Sea shark behavior following a lethal attack.
The Madbouly cabinet has still not made a decision on new electricity prices, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said in statements covered by Ramy Radwan on Masa’a DMC (watch, runtime: 1:56). The cabinet could decide to further extend the existing timeline to phase out subsidies on household electricity prices, Shaker said, warning people against believing rumors circulating about whether and by how much electricity prices could rise.
REMEMBER- Recommendations for the new electricity tariffs were sent to the cabinet for approval several weeks ago.
Suez Canal Authority (SCA) boss Osama Rabie was once again out to reassure the public that the canal is not up for lease amid news that one of its companies will go to an IPO on the EGX (more on that in the news well, above.) Speaking at a press conference yesterday to discuss the performance of the canal, Rabie confirmed that the SCA’s assets will remain under state control and the cabinet holds decision-making power over them. Ahmed Moussa’s Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 3:27 | 3:20), Sherif Amer’s Hadith fi Misr (watch, runtime: 3:35), Ramy Radwan’s Masa’a DMC (watch, runtime: 5:30) and Lubna Assal’s Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 2:39) all had coverage.
Don’t expect a rate hike today: Experts and analysts polled by the talking heads agreed with our customary poll that the central bank isn’t likely to hike interest rates when it meets today. Economist Mustafa Badra spoke with Sherif Amer (watch, runtime: 4:52) and economic analyst Ahmed Shawky joined Salet El Tahrir (watch, runtime: 8:40) to discuss today’s meeting.
Why are the sharks like this: The Environment Ministry has begun a three-stage study on the behavior of sharks in Egyptian waters, spending USD 15k to install 50 monitoring devices on Red Sea sharks, Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad told Hadith fi Misr (watch, runtime: 2:57). Fouad added that the program has started preparing to monitor sharks in Hurghada. The news comes weeks after a fatal shark attack in the area.
