Good afternoon, friends and happy (busy) hump day. We have a brisk news flow todayas we hit the midpoint of the week.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY

#1-Egypt’s non-oil private sector business activity contracted at a softer pace in November but business confidence plummeted to historic lows on the back of elevated inflation, according to S&P Global’s latest purchasing managers’ index (pdf) out this morning. The country’s PMI rose to 48.4 from 47.9 in October, yet this is still below the 50.0 mark that separates growth from contraction, making November the 36th consecutive month that business activity has been in decline.

Confidence is at series low: Egypt’s non-oil activity outlook for the next year has dropped to its worst since at least April 2012, when S&P Global began collecting data. The expectations of non-oil companies in most sectors were “only slightly positive,” while those operating in manufacturing and construction were pessimistic overall.

#2- Palm Hills to host The Ritz: Real estate developer Palm Hills Development (PHD) and hotel brand Marriott will set up an EGP 4 bn luxury hotel in west Cairo — Ritz-Carlton Palm Hills — under an agreement inked between the two sides yesterday, PHD confirmed in a statement today (pdf).

In detail: The hotel will be located in PHD’s Palm Hills October development, and will include 150 rooms and 50 apartments, as well as a number of amenities including restaurants, gyms, and swimming pools. It will create 45k jobs during the construction period and 600 when it’s up and running. The hotel should be fully operational in 2027.

CLARIFICATION- The project was not in the making since 2009 as we mentioned in our AM edition this morning, a PHD representative clarified to us earlier today. The story has been amended on our website.

HAPPENING NOW- Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is currently in Washington, DC for a series of meetings with members of Congress to discuss the country’s strategic relations with the US. Shoukry will be joined by the rest of the Arab-Islamic ministerial delegation later in the weekin a meeting with US State Secretary Antony Blinken to campaign for an end to the war on Gaza.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Updates on the Israeli-Gaza assault continue to lead the conversation in the international press as Israel continues its attack on Khan Younis, the largest city in the South of Gaza. Meanwhile, hospitals in the area are overrun with the wounded and dead — the main hospital Nasser saw an influx of patients after an attack on a school being used as a shelter — while a communications blackout in the strip prevented humanitarian response overnight. (Washington Post | Reuters | Wall Street Journal)

SOME BUSINESS NEWS- US climate envoy John Kerry singled out Chevron at COP28 as part of his criticism of US oil producers lagging on climate action, reports Bloomberg. The company did not partake in a decarbonization charter, which would mean cutting methane emissions to near-zero and halting flaring of natural gas by 2030, or commit to a fund offering support for rivals in developing countries to curb their own methane emissions. Airbus might need taxpayer backing, says the Financial Times, to launch a single-aisle aircraft and a shorter range hydrogen powered plane as successors to the A320 jet family. With Chinese borrowers defaulting at a record high since the pandemic, ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook on the country from stable to negative but maintained an “A1” long term rating on their sovereign bonds, according to CNBC.

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

  • One isn’t enough: A group of state-owned companies are looking to set up a second plant for producing green fuel in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone).
  • Elsewedy kept busy at COP28, with its subsidiaries inking a number of agreements on the sidelines of the climate summit, handing out land plots across industrial complexes and agreeing to boost renewables in Indonesia.
  • It’s another day of violence in Gaza, with Israel intensifying its attacks in both the north and the south.

?️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The mercury is expected to rise to a high of 27°C during the day and drop to a chilly 17°C in at night, according to our favorite weather app.

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