Summer evenings were once a respite from the boiling heat and lethargy of Egypt’s midday summer hours, but amid ongoing economic difficulties and crackdowns on nighttime shopping, fun-filled summer nights have become the latest victim of Egypt’s economic crisis, the New York Times reports. The paper takes an in-depth look at how businesses are faring as the early closing rules and hard economic times take a chunk out of their bottom lines.

Early closing times have hit small business hard, with the government instituted a 10pm closing time for all non-essential commercial businesses in July slashing footfall. But it’s not just early closing times eating away at small businesses’ bottom lines, writes the outlet, as there are now many consumers who simply cannot afford to keep up their previous consumption habits under the current economic climate.

ALSO WORTH NOTING FROM THE INT’L PRESS: Continued CBE government lending could end up doing more harm than good, say economists, according to Reuters. The newswire takes a look at how an increase in central bank lending to the government in the last fiscal year is expanding the money supply, which in turn could put our current deflationary trajectory at risk and push the EGP to weaken against other currencies.

By the numbers: Money supply increased by 31.1% y-o-y by the end of the fiscal year 2023-2024, following a 33.4% y-o-y increase in FY 2022-23.

But its seems we’re now on the right track, as “money supply in percent year-on-year terms has slowed from its peak of nearly 50% in February, which may be adding to the momentum of price changes (such as the decline in food inflation) in driving the headline rate of inflation in Egypt down over the course of this year,” Capital Economics’ James Swanston told the newswire.

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