The foreign press were taken by surprise just as much as us, and jumped on the phone with analysts to try and figure out what’s in stock for the country. Bloomberg led with the headline that “Egypt’s shock rate unlocks USD 8 bn IMF Loan” and the the Wall Street Journal wrote that while they expected a devaluation, “the announcement of a complete free float — and its timing on Wednesday — was a surprise.” Big name analysts were also caught off guard, with Goldman Sachs economist Farouk Soussa saying that “the big surprise of the day was the mega hike, which over-delivered and has boosted confidence in the market,” in a separate report by Bloomberg.

“I think the crisis is over,” FIM Partner’s macro strategy head Charlie Robertson told the Financial Times. Similarly optimistic was Societe Generale emerging markets strategist Gergely Urmossy in a Bloomberg piece, saying that in the absence of a hard peg, “Egypt’s outlook will improve.” There was even excitement from some corners, with Aviva analyst Carmen Altenkirch saying “the devaluation has got the market very excited.”.

The sole note of negativity: Bloomberg and the WSJ both raised concerns that the float could fuel inflation, though most analysts we’ve spoken to expect the impact to be muted at worst — goods now in the country were priced with the USD at an effective exchange rate of about 70.

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