Monetary Policy Committee leaves key policy rates unchanged

☀️ Good morning, friends, and happy weekend. It’s been a busy week in the news, and we have the full round-up below. But first, here’s what we have in store for you today:

The Spend this month goes behind the scenes of Egypt’s hospitality industry: how the country’s green certification system works, what hotels actually have to do to earn and keep their stars, and whether any of it translates into something tangible for the business, for the guest, and for the environment.

Elsewhere in today’s issue: a World War II film that comes at D-Day from an angle we haven’t seen before, following the Scottish meteorologist whose weather forecasts determined whether the Allied landings got the go-ahead.

With less than 60 days to GTA VI, we’re revisiting Red Dead Redemption, the one Rockstar title that has nothing to do with cars and everything to do with whether a man can outrun his past. We also have a Lebanese restaurant, a linguistics podcast that spends a single episode on a single word, and everything that happened in the world this week.

Without further ado, let’s dive right in…

🗞️ LAST WEEK IN 3 MINS-

ECONOMY-

For the fifth consecutive time this year, the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) Monetary Policy Committee left interest rates unchanged at its meeting yesterday, according to a CBE statement. This, once again, leaves the overnight deposit rate at 19.0% and the overnight lending rate at 20.0%, in line with analyst expectations, despite consensus cracking this time around, with HC Securities’ Heba Monir having anticipated a hike.

This comes after August urban inflation unexpectedly slowed to 14.5%, undershooting the 15.5% Reuters consensus of 17 analysts, the CBE’s own guidance of a 3Q pickup, and an EFG Hermes 15.8% projection.

EGX-

Another 6.5% of Gourmet changed hands just seven months after its blockbuster IPO, with B Investments Holding selling 26 mn shares for EGP 416.2 mn, cutting its stake in the premium grocer to 33.5%. The sale prices the shares at EGP 16 apiece, more than double Gourmet’s EGP 6.90 final IPO price, and takes B Investments below the 40% stake it came out of the listing with.

ALSO- Local steelmaker Metad Helwan for Metal Rolling is eyeing an EGP 1 bn IPO on the EGX in 2H 2027, with plans to offer a 15-30% stake. The company is still studying the transaction and has yet to appoint a financial adviser or bookrunner. Taken at face value, the targeted proceeds and stake range imply a valuation of anywhere between EGP 3.3 bn and EGP 6.7 bn.

BANKING-

The ​​African Export-Import Bank is planning to connect its Pan-African Payment and Settlement System to Egypt’s InstaPay app, and six local banks have already applied to the Central Bank of Egypt for final integration approval. The link-up would let Egyptian traders settle with African counterparts in local currencies rather than relying on USD, cutting the cost and time it currently takes to route a payment through a correspondent bank. We dive into what that means, how it works, and what’s in it for Egypt here.

INVESTMENT-

Alam Al Roum is moving toward investment-zone status after the Madbouly cabinet approved a draft prime minister’s decree last week to designate the 4.9k-feddan Qatari Diar development as an investment zone. The zone runs along the Alexandria-Matrouh coastal road in Matrouh Governorate and will accommodate residential, tourism, commercial, administrative, and service activities.

TOURISM-

EgyptAir was named the World’s Most Improved Airline at the 2026 Skytrax World Airline Awards, ranking first globally ahead of Air India, Royal Jordanian, and American Airlines. The airline also jumped 22 spots in Skytrax’s global Top 100 rankings, climbing from 68th to 46th, its first-ever placement inside the world’s top 50.

REAL ESTATE-

Nawy Shares and CI Capital Asset Management (Ciam) signed an agreement to set up and manage real estate investment funds. First subscriptions are targeted for early next year, pending regulatory approvals. The proposed funds would invest in projects under development and completed income-generating assets, with the option to structure individual issuances around specific projects.

AND- Talaat Moustafa Group’s (TMG) Saudi arm inked a preliminary agreement with Roshn Group, a subsidiary of KSA’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), to develop a mixed-use project in Riyadh. The proposed joint venture — 51% owned by TMG — is exploring a 55k-home development in the Saudi capital, alongside retail, offices, hotels, entertainment, healthcare, education, parks, and public spaces. No timeline, project value, or plot size details were given.

STARTUPS-

Cairo-born fintech Paymob landed a USD 35 mn pre-Series C round co-led by Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

M&A WATCH-

E-finance received shareholders’ approval to buy 99.32% of MSME lender Tamweely Financial Services at an extraordinary general meeting late last week. E-finance will raise its capital by about EGP 73 mn to EGP 1.81 bn by issuing 146.1 mn new shares, all of them going to Turin Egypt, Tamweely’s principal shareholder, which ends up with about 4.04% of the enlarged company.

Inside the NBFI firestorm with Hazem Moussa: For a few months, alarms have sounded across the board, cautioning of an impending credit bubble. Are they warranted?

On this episode of Making It, Hazem Moussa, co-founder of Contact Financial Holding, joins Patrick to break down how a bubble in the credit industry actually forms, what regulators should watch out for, the risks on both sides, and the responsibility that lies on the client side — us, the consumers.

Listen to the episode on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anghami | YouTube

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🌍 AROUND THE WORLD IN SEVEN DAYS-

This week’s headlines were dominated by a German governing party’s historic collapse and Trump’s escalating war with the press — all playing out against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly in New York. Here’s the rundown.

The UN General Assembly delivered the week’s most significant diplomatic development: a three-hour meeting between US and Iranian envoys — the first direct contact since June — which US President Donald Trump characterized as productive despite his repeated threats to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic. Iran made an offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days conditional on the US scaling back military pressure and lifting its blockade on Iranian ports. The economic squeeze tightened further: US Treasury Secretary Bessent announced all Iranian airlines would be shut down worldwide from Wednesday, with Oman, Azerbaijan, and Iraq all moving to ban Iranian flights within hours. A G7 joint statement separately called on Tehran to end its arming of the Houthis in Yemen.

IN POLITICS- Germany’s governing coalition took a historic blow: Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union failed to clear the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — its worst regional result in post-war Germany — with Merz calling it a “disaster” while vowing to stay in office.

AND- The Trump administration moved to sanction the International Criminal Court — prohibiting most transactions with the institution after a six-to-seven-month grace period — in retaliation for its arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

IN WASHINGTON- CNN, Politico, and MS Now sued the Trump administration over the revocation of press credentials without notice or due process as major networks — ABC, CBS, Fox News, and NBC — announced a halt to video coverage of the president. Trump responded by launching Trump TV, a White House-run 24/7 livestream. Trump also announced the creation of AI Force, a new military unit dedicated to AI, as a bipartisan congressional bill requiring an AI “kill switch” for rogue systems stalled shortly after introduction.

Speaking of AI, an OpenAI agent breached an Australian government health portal in June — with the startup acknowledging unintended actions affecting multiple government websites, though finding no evidence of patient records accessed — adding to the week’s mounting AI safety concerns.

IN TRADE- The US and China extended their trade war truce by two months to 10 January as President Xi Jinping arrived in the US for his first stateside visit in 11 years. The one-year arrangement buys both sides more time to negotiate a longer-term settlement.

IN THE BUSINESS PRESS- The US and Denmark settled their Greenland standoff with a pact barring rival states from establishing a military presence on the island — Trump claimed it gives Washington “permanent control,” while Copenhagen and Nuuk said sovereignty is unchanged. The Trump administration is now reportedly looking to open two military bases in Greenland as part of a trilateral agreement with Denmark and the Greenlandic government.

We’re honored to have Ahmed Ali Abdelrahman join us as a guest speaker at the 2026 EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum — the AI edition.

Ahmed Ali Abdelrahman is a private equity and investment banking executive with over 30 years of experience across Egypt and the GCC, with a track record spanning deal origination, IPO and M&A execution, and building direct-investment platforms from the ground up. He currently serves as Managing Director and CEO of Post For Investment (PFI), where he oversees a c. EGP 17 bn (USD 340 mn) direct-investment portfolio and structured the firm’s first landmark exit in 2024. Previously, as Group Deputy CEO and CIO of Beltone Financial, he launched three new lending verticals, building an aggregate portfolio of EGP 2 bn within three years.

Join us on 5 October in Cairo. Attendance is by invitation only, and we're close to full capacity.

Request your invitation here.

☀️ THE WEATHER THIS WEEKEND-

We’re in for even cooler weather this weekend, with temperatures peaking at 32°C before dropping to 21°C overnight. Tomorrow will bring less humidity, with a high of just 31°C and a low of 22°C, according to our favorite weather app.

🎤 HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND-

Care for a magical musical evening? Omar Khairat is heading to El Sawy Culture Wheel at Nile University in Sheikh Zayed tonight at 8pm for an evening of his iconic piano arrangements. You can get tickets through El Sawy Culture Wheel’s website.

Ever wondered what happens to a donated piece of clothing that’s deemed unsuitable for reuse? The Egyptian Clothing Bank is inviting you to its sustainable design experience, From Waste to Good Taste (FWGT), as it returns for its fourth year at The Factory, Al Nabrawi, Downtown Cairo today and tomorrow. The exhibition transforms the ECB’s donated waste — from garment to scrap — into a curated material system, sorted by color, texture, and pattern, tracing each piece’s journey from repair to distribution.

The event also features curated art installations, hands-on workshops, a shopping floor from Almah, and more. FWGT kicks off at 3pm on Friday and 1pm on Saturday, running until 11pm on both days. You can book your tickets here.

Lebanese comedy sensation John Achkar is landing in Egypt tomorrow as part of his ongoing global tour: Feena Nehke? The stand-up comedian is taking the stage at Theatro Arkan with a more personal Arabic-language special. Tickets are available on TicketsMarché — you can get tickets for the early show kicking off at 6:30pm here and the late show at 9:30pm here.

Diwan is celebrating the Palestinian literary icon Mahmoud Darwish on his specially dedicated Poetry Day established by the Institut du Monde Arabe, with an event at their Heliopolis branch. Happening tomorrow, 7-9pm, expect a rich discussion on how the poet’s words continue to resonate across different times, cultures, and geographies.

🎤 HAPPENING NEXT WEEKEND-

Please, sir, we want some more. Fabrica Musical Theatre’s Oliver is back for season 3, bringing the beloved Dickensian musical in Arabic back to Teatro 90 in New Cairo for three consecutive nights from Thursday, 1 October to Saturday, 3 October for another round of big songs, big personalities, and plenty of Victorian-era drama. Whether you’re a longtime fan or meeting young Oliver Twist for the first time, expect a theatrical evening packed with mayhem and musical numbers you’ll be humming long after the curtain falls. The show begins at 8pm — tickets are available through TicketsMarché.