The Egyptian Stock Exchange reduced its losses to about 4 percent at the close of Sunday’s session, which witnessed sharp and almost mass declines in stocks, as a result of foreign investors re-evaluating risks, followed by a mass selling wave.
Shortly after the start of the session, the Egyptian Stock Exchange administration suspended trading for half an hour, following the decline of the broader “EGX 100” index by about 10 percent. This is the first time that such a measure has been taken since the Corona pandemic.
The Egyptian Stock Exchange explained, in an official statement addressed to all traders in the market, that it was decided to stop trading for 30 minutes, following the decline of the “EGX 100 EWI” index by 10 percent, in accordance with the controls regulating trading and the mechanisms in place to deal with sharp fluctuations in market indicators.
Market capitalization losses for restricted stocks amounted to about 70 billion pounds.
This comes at a time when government debt instruments are witnessing intense sales from foreign investors, as a result of geopolitical developments in the region, which led to the decline of the Egyptian pound, to record levels it has never reached, at more than 55.50 pounds against the dollar in Sunday’s trading.
Foreign sales of debt instruments during the past week amounted to about two billion dollars, with the development of the war in the Middle East and news of new American strikes on Iran.
Simultaneously, a mission from the International Monetary Fund, on Sunday, began talks on the eighth and final review of the economic reform program in Egypt, according to “Al-Sharq Bloomberg,” citing informed sources.
The review paves the way for the disbursement of the final tranche of Egypt's $8 billion loan. The value of the tranche is about $1.5 billion, while the country is awaiting about $800 million additional from the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, subject to the completion of its third review and the approval of the Fund’s Executive Board. The Fund aims to approve the final review by next December.
Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly recently announced that his government is preparing to launch a national program for economic transformation, starting in 2027, amid a trend not to request a new financing program from the IMF.
Egypt announced the first features of the National Economic Transformation Program for the period from 2027 to 2030, which is based on enhancing economic stability, empowering the private sector and improving the quality of life, and aims to raise the growth rate to 6.8 percent by the fiscal year 2029-2030.
The International Monetary Fund stresses the importance of Egypt continuing structural reforms, especially expanding the role of the private sector, reducing state intervention in economic activity, managing public debt and reducing the cost of servicing it.
Egypt agreed with the International Monetary Fund, in March 2024, to increase the value of the extended facility program from $3 billion to $8 billion, in addition to providing additional financing worth $1.3 billion through the Resilience and Sustainability Facility.
Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Sunday that Europe still obtains large quantities of Russian energy resources, explaining that Europe has isolated itself from the Russian market.
Putin said, in press statements: “Russia has been accused of prohibiting and preventing the supply of relatively cheap raw materials, such as oil, gas, coal, and uranium raw materials, but we have never refused to supply anyone; Rather, they are the ones who refused, and are still making plans to give up what they are still getting from Russia. By the way, they are receiving large quantities,” according to the Russian “Sputnik” agency.
Putin added that LNG exports from Russia account for 20 percent of the European market; Pointing out that “this is a significant share of the market.”
Putin continued: “They (European leaders) have isolated themselves from our energy resources and from our market. You must realize that we have not only provided relatively cheap primary energy resources; “But we also gave them access to our market, which is actually a very large market for European countries.”
Putin confirmed that the leaders of European countries forced Western companies to leave Russia.
He said: “When some companies were leaving under pressure from the governments of Western European countries, our friends from those countries were almost in tears.”
Putin added that Russia was providing a huge market for Western countries, and that Moscow had many friends in Europe, but European leaders forced Western companies to withdraw from Russia.
Putin noted that the accusations against Russia show the weakness of European leaders in taking responsibility for what is happening.
The Bank of Israel issued a rare criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, against the backdrop of his recent statements regarding the use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to create an “alternative economy” capable of withstanding possible sanctions that may be imposed on Israel.
The Central Bank said, in a statement issued on Saturday evening, that cryptocurrencies cannot be used as a means to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Israel, stressing that the interest of the Israeli economy lies in maintaining its economic relations with its main trading partners, and working to prevent the imposition of sanctions and limit their negative effects on the economy.
The bank added that this issue falls within the responsibility of the political leadership, and that it is appropriate to work to address it.
In a recent interview with Israel's Channel 10, Netanyahu acknowledged the increasing pressure from the United States, Israel's main ally, saying that "sanctions, including banking sanctions, may be imposed."
He added that preparations should be made to create an “alternative economy” capable of operating under these sanctions. Pointing out that he issued directives to prepare plans based on Block Chain technology to achieve this goal.
Netanyahu's statements sparked criticism from his rivals ahead of the Israeli elections scheduled for this week. They considered it to represent an implicit acknowledgment that his policies and leadership were causing harmful repercussions for Israel.
The central bank's position comes at a time when fears are increasing about the possibility of imposing economic restrictions on Israel, amid pressure from the United States, while the bank stressed that maintaining trade and financial relations with major partners represents the appropriate path to protecting the economy.
