Good morning, friends. It’s another busy morning here at home led by news of US Secretary of State Blinken’s upcoming trip to Cairo where he will be meeting with Egyptian officials to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

^^ We have the full story in the news well, below.

PSA- So, when do we eat? Maghrib prayers are at 6:07pm in the capital city, and you’ll have until 4:30am tomorrow to hydrate and caffeinate ahead of fajr.

DATA POINTS-

#1-Gov’t allocates EGP 596 bn for subsidies and social support in the next fiscal year, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in a statement. This includes EGP 134 bn for commodity subsidies, more than EGP 147 bn to subsidize fuel products, and north of EGP 40 bn for Takaful and Karama, Maait said.

How does this compare to the current fiscal year? The government’s budget for FY 2023-24 penciled in EGP 127.7 bn for food subsidies, and EGP 119.4 bn for fuel subsidies. Takaful and Karama programs were allocated EGP 31 bn for the fiscal year.

The government expects to spend some EGP 3.9 tn in the upcoming fiscal year, while total government revenues are expected to come in at EGP 2.6 tn. Tax revenues are forecasted to hit EGP 2 tn in FY 2024-25, with no plans for new taxes, Maait said.

** More on next year’s budget: We got our first look at the Finance Ministry’s fiscal projections for the fiscal year 2024-2025 in January.

#2-Exports from Israel’s Leviathan gas field to Egypt were up 28% last year, jumping to 6.3 bcm from 4.9 bcm in 2022, Israel’s NewMed Energy said in itsannual report.

WATCH IS SPACE-

#1- The Saudi government approved last night an MoU between its Finance Ministry and Egyptian counterparts to establish a high-level financial dialogue, a statement from the Saudi cabinet read without adding further details.

#2-Executive regulations for the new building reconciliation law will be issued within days, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alaa Foad said, according to Al Borsa. The executive regulations of the law — set to make it easier for owners of unauthorized buildings built by 15 October of last year to legalize their properties in return for paying a reconciliation fee — were due on 22 February, but are yet to be issued. Foad said the delay stems from the government wanting to reach common ground on the act between the local development, housing, and agriculture ministries.

** We delved into the ins and outs of the new law in a Hardhat last year.

HAPPENING TODAY-

The US Federal Reserve wraps its two-day meeting. Nobody expects it to announce a rate cut this evening (Cairo time), but pundits will be scouring its statement for hints of when it might start. A Moody’s analyst tells CNBC that “I expect them to reaffirm three rate cuts this year, so that would suggest the first rate cut would be in June.”

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Leading the front pages this morning:

  • In Gaza, starving children fill hospital wards as famine looms (Reuters)
  • The dilemma impeding an Israel-Hamas ceasefire (Wall Street Journal)
  • Israel’s ban on Palestinian workers is hurting both economies (Bloomberg)
  • In Hong Kong, China’s grip can feel like ‘death by a thousand cuts’ (New York Times)

Private is the new public — again? Calpers, the biggest pension fund in the United States, wants to see private equity and credit investments account for 40% of its AUM, up from 33% now. The move will see it pour some USD 30 bn or more into private equity after the fund said it thinks it cost up to USD 18 bn in returns by not piling into PE earlier.

Reports of the death of EV manufacturing are greatly exaggerated, if you’ll allow us to quote Mr. Twain this morning. German carmaker Audi is looking into the possibility of manufacturing EVs in the US of A, piggybacking on unused space at a plant owned by parent company Volkswagen.

From Planet AI: Google is talking to Apple about becoming the baked-in provider of generative AI services on iPhones (it already has an agreement that makes it the default search engine of Safari) and Microsoft just hired the founder of DeepMind to run its consumer AI unit.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: Enterprise’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: We take a look at Egypt’s efforts from expanding its airports and looking at the private sector for help to fulfill its ambitious aviation goals.

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