Good afternoon, friends. The condensed week has made for a lengthier issue today, with plenty to dig into. A new tiered taxpayer classification system is in the works, with VAT incentives and fast-track services slated for compliant corporations. We’ve also got gold hitting fresh highs, and we ask Egyptian jewelers how they are adapting to a market in flux.

** A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE- EnterprisePM is taking a publication holiday in commemoration of 25 January, and will be back in your inboxes at the usual time Sunday afternoon. Look for the Weekend Edition in your inboxes tomorrow morning.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

📍The Finance Ministry is finalizing a tiered classification system for corporate taxpayers to extend tailored service packages, a senior government official tells EnterpriseAM. Companies will be grouped into platinum, gold, and silver categories based on a yet to be confirmed set of criteria, but chief among them is compliance, our source tells us.

What we know so far: The platinum tier will grant eligible companies 30 expedited services including a fast-track VAT refund processed within a maximum of five working days instead of the current 22 days. Gold and silver tiers will grant scaled-down versions of these services based on governance rules currently being discussed and drafted.

Why it matters: The classification system will operate alongside recent tax facilitation packages to improve collection efficiency and streamline administrative hurdles, our source says, supporting the state’s target of raising tax revenues by 1-2% of GDP annually by 2030.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 Gold continues to dominates headlines, hitting a a record high above USD 5.3k an ounce this afternoon. Spot gold rose 1.5%, up more than 20% since the start of the year. Meanwhile, the USD is still near its four-year low, dropping by more than 1% on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump shrugged off the sharp selloff, saying that “the USD is doing great.” The greenback has since found its footing as the USD Index rose 0.25% to 96.16.

^^Read more coverage in the Financial Times and Reuters here and here.

In other business headlines, Amazon is on its second round of major layoffs, cutting 16k corporate jobs worldwide. The cut is part of Amazon’s restructuring after pandemic-era over-hiring and a push to heavily invest in artificial intelligence.

^^Read more coverage of this story in Bloomberg, CNBC, and Reuters.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

  • The Finance Ministry is exploring a possible listing of its 20% stake in AlexBank on the EGX as early as this year after talks to sell the stake to majority shareholder Intesa Sanpaolo stalled;
  • China’s Xinfeng Steel is doubling down on Egypt. The company is now planning a massive USD 10 bn integrated industrial complex in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, up 6x from an initial USD 1.7 bn price tag mentioned in April when the project started construction;
  • Egypt’s non-oil exports grew 17% y-o-y in 2025 to reach USD 48.6 bn. Imports saw a more modest 5% increase to USD 83.0 bn, leading to a 9% contraction in the non-oil trade deficit, which ended the year at USD 34.4 bn.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’re in for a cool and windy day in Cairo tomorrow, with the mercury set to peak at 21°C before dropping to 12°C, according to our favorite weather app.

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