Good afternoon, friends, and happy Hump Day. It’s a breezy one in Cairo, and we’ve got an issue to match. Egypt’s unemployment rate has hit a record low, but the headline is kinder than the full picture. Urban and female joblessness moved in the other direction. And the private-sector hiring spree behind the number came from firms clearing backlogs, not chasing fresh demand. We unpack what the 5.8% is (and isn’t) telling us.
Then, a palate cleanser: A new Heliopolis pizzeria with no website, no socials, and a Hot Honey Pepperoni we’ve ordered more times than we’d like to admit. Consider this your tip-off before the rest of Cairo catches on. On the pitches, it’s another quiet day, with just one domestic fixture on air tonight.
Onto the headlines…
Become a morning regular
What’s moving Egypt’s economy, in your inbox every weekday. Free, in English or Arabic.
Here are the stories driving the day, both at home and abroad.CIB’s consolidated net income fell 17% y-o-y to EGP 23.8 bn in 3Q 2026, a drop that comes down to a one-off in last year’s base, according to the lender’s earnings release. Revenue rose 28% y-o-y to EGP 37.0 bn during the quarter. On a q-o-q basis, net income climbed 11% from 2Q, for which the bank previously posted a 29% y-o-y jump.
One-offs on both sides: 3Q 2025 included a EGP 13.1 bn provision release after CIB recalibrated its expected credit loss model. This year’s quarter had two smaller ones: a EGP 2.0 bn regulatory expense reversal and a EGP 2.1 bn provision release tied to a single corporate client’s repayment, which together added a net EGP 3.4 bn after tax. Strip both years’ one-offs out and nine-month net income grew 18% (9% in USD terms), the bank says, against a reported 2% rise to EGP 63.1 bn. The same adjustment cuts the other way for the quarter: without this year’s one-offs, 3Q net income would have been about EGP 20.4 bn, around 5% below 2Q, by our math.
^^We’ll have more on this story in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.
☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’re in for more of the same on the weather front in Cairo tomorrow, with temperatures peaking at just 26°C before further cooling down to an overnight low of 16°C, according to our favorite weather app.
MAKING HEADLINES ABROAD-
Russia, Ukraine, and the US begantwo days of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, the first such negotiations since February, as Washington pushes for an end to the war. US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are leading efforts to bridge differences, with discussions focused on security guarantees and a possible settlement.
However,Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on key terms, with Russia controlling around a fifth of Ukrainian territory. The talks opened after a fresh wave of Russian strikes across 10 Ukrainian regions killed at least nine people and injured 39 while damaging five major electricity substations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of intensifying its attacks to pressure Kyiv ahead of negotiations.
IN THE BUSINESS PRESS- Anthropic is targeting a valuation of up to USD 1.02 tn in an IPO that could raise USD 64.4 bn, according to a regulatory filing released today. The Claude-maker is also seeking another USD 26 bn through a private placement involving major investors including Google, Nvidia, and AMD. Combined with commitments from other cornerstone investors, including Microsoft, Broadcom, Micron, and TSMC, the offering could raise as much as USD 90.4 bn. The IPO is expected to begin marketing to investors this week and could become the largest public listing in history.
Egypt’s unemployment ratefell to 5.8% in 2Q 2026— the lowest on record, down from nearly 13% in 2014 — but the headline flatters the job market. Urban unemployment rose to 8.8%, women’s unemployment edged up to 14.4%, and the private-sector hiring burst behind the numbers came from firms clearing work backlogs, not from fresh demand.
The labor force grew 0.6% q-o-q to 35.64 mn in 2Q, up from around 35.41 mn in 1Q. Meanwhile, non-oil private-sector firms posted their second-fastest job creation pace in the 15-year history of the S&P Global Egypt PMI.
The headline overstates things
The gains were rural and male. Unemployment fell to 3.5% in rural areas, while the urban rate climbed to 8.8%. Men’s unemployment dropped to 3.4%, with 26.9 mn men in work. Women’s unemployment rose to 14.4% from 14.3% in 1Q, and just 6.67 mn women are employed — roughly one in five working Egyptians.
Nearly half the workforce sits in three traditional sectors. Agriculture and fishing employ 6.25 mn people, or 18.6% of the workforce. Wholesale and retail trade follow at 17.2%, then manufacturing (13.5%), construction (11.8%), and transportation and storage (9.3%). These sectors tend to have lower productivity — meaning the sector produces less economic value per worker — and shifting workers into higher-value industries remains a persistent challenge.
What drove private hiring
Firms hired to clear backlogs, not to meet new demand. Companies added staff to cope with mounting workloads, according to the August PMI report. Outstanding work stabilized after growing for three consecutive months. That makes the hiring burst an operational catch-up, not a sign of stronger consumer demand.
The momentum didn’t last. The PMI climbed to a seven-month high of 49.6 in August, just shy of the 50.0 mark that separates expansion from contraction. It then fell back to 47.2 in September and held there in October. Purchasing dropped at its sharpest rate in nearly three years: 29% of surveyed firms cut purchases, citing material shortages, cashflow limits, and tight liquidity.
Costs are squeezing margins. Headline inflation cooled to 12.7% in October. Even so, firms reported above-average wage growth as they raised salaries to help staff with the cost of living. Input costs and output prices are both re-accelerating on higher oil, material, and transport costs, which leaves businesses exposed if end-user demand doesn’t strengthen.
Higher-value jobs
Digital offshoring is growing fast — from a small base. Export revenues doubled to USD 4.8 bn in 2025 from USD 2.4 bn in 2022. The number of companies using Egypt as an offshoring hub also doubled, to 240, across IT, business process outsourcing (BPO), and engineering R&D. Egypt is counting on its 760k annual university graduates, including 50k ICT specialists, to fill more than 70k tech and BPO jobs over the next three years. That is a real opening for graduates, but it equals about 0.2% of today’s employed workforce.
Foreign company registrations are up, though the companies are small. Egypt registered more than 5k new foreign companies in 1H 2026, up 33.7% y-o-y from a little over 3.7k. Issued capital rose 20.9% to EGP 21.4 bn from EGP 17.7 bn, an average of roughly EGP 4.3 mn per company. The jump coincides with regulatory reforms covering licensing, digital investor services through the General Authority for Investment and Freezones (GAFI), and wider private-sector participation. Those reforms are backed by USD 1 bn in World Bank Group development financing approved in May.
Growth is picking up underneath. Real GDP growth accelerated to 5.1% in FY 2025-26, driven by a 9% expansion in non-oil manufacturing and strong growth in communications and logistics.
What’s next
Business sentiment is at its highest since June 2022, but expectations remain modest. Just over 21% of PMI respondents expect growth in the coming year, citing new projects, tourism expansion, and branch openings. The test is whether demand catches up with hiring. If it doesn’t, rising wages and input costs will eat into the margins that the backlog-clearing hiring spree depended on.
Missed this morning’s edition of EnterpriseAM? Here are the top stories in a nutshell.
How a new generation of retail investorsweathered the EGX’s first trading haltin five years: October’s selloff drew three very different reactions from three investors we spoke to. One bought more shares as prices fell, another decided she’d had enough of picking stocks, and the third held enough liquidity to barely feel it;
Annual urban headline inflationslowed for a third consecutive monthto 12.7% in October, down from 13.9% in September, its lowest level since January. Annual core inflation, a gauge computed by the Central Bank of Egypt that strips out volatile prices, eased to 13.1% from 14.1%. On a monthly basis, headline prices rose just 0.7%, slowing from September’s 1.3% clip;
Newly listed MNT Tech Holding for Financial Investmentsmore than doubledits net income q-o-q to EGP 836 mn in 3Q 2026, according to its first earnings release since debuting on the EGX on 20 October. Revenue climbed 15% q-o-q to EGP 5.4 bn, and annualized return on average equity rose 20 percentage points to 41.1%. Most of the q-o-q jump came from offloading income, cheaper funding, and a one-off gain;
The Niat and Rasgha wind projects at Ras Gharebreached financial close, with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the German Investment Corporation (DEG) each providing a third of a USD 436 mn debt package (around USD 145.3 mn apiece, by our math). The two 250 MW farms cost USD 626 mn combined and are due to start commercial operation by the end of 2028.
The perfect pizza is everyone’s El Dorado. Deep down, you know it exists, but no matter how many culinary adventures you go on, it stays the stuff of legend. Some pizzerias do get damn close, though, and Heliopolis’ newest entrant to the pie scene, Pitzaya, is one of them. It just launched with no socials or a website, only a Talabat listing, which is where it sneaked into our feed. We were curious enough to give it a shot, and we’ve never been more thankful.
What’s on the menu? Pitzaya keeps things simple, which is a gift if decision fatigue has been getting to you. There’s the OG Margherita, Fire Garden (vegetables), Hot Honey Pepperoni, Sausage Sriracha, and Frutti Di Mare. Every pizza comes in one size — which we’d compare to a Medium from, say, Papa John’s — and costs around EGP 230, except for the Frutti Di Mare.
What we ordered and loved: We started with the Hot Honey Pepperoni to see if it could match its rivals’ pies. It did, and then some. The crust is thin without being too crunchy, the toppings and sauce are generous yet somehow light, and the hot honey drizzle is exactly the right amount. We were enamored and told the store so when it reached out for feedback.
We figured it might be beginner’s luck, so we tried again. A week later, we ordered the same pizza and added an OG Margherita. Both were brilliant, and the Hot Honey Pepperoni was just as good, if not better. Delivery took just 20 minutes, much faster than your usual pizza joint, and even after downing both pies, we wanted more.
The verdict: If you’re in Heliopolis, make Pitzaya your next pizza order. Everyone else is out of luck, since it’s the only branch. The flavors work, the ingredients taste fresh, the pies are light yet filling, and at around EGP 230, it’s practically a culinary miracle.
WHERE TO GET IT- You can order Pitzaya through Talabat.
The EGX30 rose 2.1% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 12.8 bn (15.2% above the 90-day average). Regional investors were the sole net sellers. The index is up 25.5% YTD.
In the green: EFG Holding (+6.8%), Raya Holding (+5.1%), and ADIB (+5.1%).
In the red: AMOC (-1.6%) and Alexandria Containers and Goods (-0.4%).
Alreadymaking Red Sea plans? Here’s one for the photography buffs.El Gouna Photo Week returns for a full 10 days at Marina Abu Tig 2’s Main Festival Hub, running from Thursday, 3 December to Saturday, 12 December. Organized by Photopia and Cairo Photo Week, the festival features a packed program of masterclasses, exhibitions, hands-on workshops, talks, portfolio reviews, screenings, and networking events. Tickets are available on TicketsMarché. Visual Art majors get complimentary entry, while other students can enjoy a special full-pass rate.
Egypt Edition 
MENA+ Edition 
UAE Edition 
Saudi Edition 
AI + Innovation (MENA) 
Infrastructure 
Share Issue
