Good afternoon, friends. We’re starting up our weekly wind-down and looking forward to a festive Christmas Eve spent with friends and family — we hope you’re doing the same. But before you get too cozy, here’s the news.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

📍EXCLUSIVE– Egypt expects to receive a c.USD 2.7 bn disbursement from the IMF in the first half of January, IMF Executive Director and former Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told EnterpriseAM. The disbursement will take place immediately after the Fund’s executive board meets following the holiday break to sign off on the reviews.

The board has yet to pencil in an exact date on its calendar, but we’ll be refreshing until it does.

Why this matters: This is a significant front-loading of liquidity. By combining the fifth and sixth reviews (c. USD 2.5 bn) with the first review of the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (c. USD 200 mn), the IMF is effectively handing the Madbouly government a massive liquidity cushion to start 2026.

This isn’t just about reserves — it’s about fiscal space. The injection gives the government breathing room to manage two critical (and expensive) priorities in 1Q 2026, a second senior government source tells us. The government needs money on hand to mitigate the impact of the final subsidy lifts and funds to cover debt obligations without aggressively borrowing at high rates.

What paved the way? The numbers finally match the narrative. The smooth path to this agreement wasn’t just about promises, but hard data, Maait tells us. He pointed to two key metrics that eased the Fund’s concerns: net international reserves hitting an all-time high and GDP growth accelerating to 5.3% in 1Q of the current fiscal year, up 2.9 percentage points y-o-y.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 The US economy grew at a brisk 4.3% clip in the third quarter of the year, backed by consumer spending on healthcare and computing. That’s well ahead of the 3.2% pace at which analysts polled by Bloomberg expected the economy to expand. Investment by businesses slowed and exports fell in the same period.

Oil-price watchers, take note: The US has moved special operations forces into the Caribbean, ratcheting up pressure on Venezuela’s government. Washington is already enforcing a blockade of oil tankers moving into and out of the Latin American country.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’re in for a warm day tomorrow — just kidding. Temperatures in Cairo are set to peak at a brisk 22°C before cooling down to 13°C, according to our favorite weather app.

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