Egypt's inflation dips to 20.9 pct in year to November Consumer inflation in Egypt fell to 20.9 percent in the year to November from 21.2 percent in the year to October, the state-run statistics agency CAPMAS said on Wednesday. Inflation in urban parts of the country rose a sliver to 20.3 percent in the year to November from 20.2 percent in October, while the rural inflation rate fell to 21.8 percent from 22.5 percent. Food prices nationwide fell 0.5 percent in the month to November, 0.2 percent in urban parts of the country and 0.8 percent in rural areas, the agency said. Many economists expect the central bank to ease interest rates over the next 12 months to help promote economic growth in the Arab country as global commodity prices fall. The bank raised rates six times over the past year to tame inflation. -Reuters Egypt makes significant oil find in Western Desert A US-based oil exploration company has found up to 7,000 barrels of oil a day in a deep well in Egypt's Western Desert, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported on Wednesday. MENA said the find included 5,300 barrels of high quality crude and 14 million cubic feet of natural gas daily, and described the it as "one of the best discoveries achieved in the Western Desert. It said that Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy had received word of the find in a meeting with Mahmoud Dabbous, head of US-based oil firm IPR, but gave few details. MENA said that the well, named Zain 1, had a depth of 17,000 feet in a layer of earth dating to the Jurassic era in IPR's concession area, 130 km southwest of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. MENA added that IPR had also recently made an oil find in its Ramadan 1 well in the Gulf of Suez of roughly 3,000 barrels of crude and 1.5 million cubic feet of natural gas daily. It found a smaller amount of oil in its nearby Ramadan 2 well. Officials at both IPR and Egypt's oil ministry could not be immediately reached for comment. IPR's website describes itself as a group of oil and gas operating companies with extensive experience in exploration and production. It says it has operations in Egypt, Syria and Pakistan with headquarters in the United States. Egypt has proven crude oil and condensate reserves of around 4.189 billion barrels, and natural gas reserves of around 76 trillion cubic feet. It is a major natural gas exporter, both by pipeline through Jordan and in liquefied form by ship. -Reuters Phosphate fertilizer company in Aswan The Holding Company for Chemical Industries will establish a phosphate fertilizer company in Aswan with a total capital of LE 100 million, Al-Ahram reported. In an initial phase to be completed in October 2009, the new company will build a plant with a daily production capacity of 1,000 tons of single super phosphate and 1,000 tons of mixed NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) fertilizers. In a second phase to be completed in October 2011, it will add 1,500 tons of sulfuric acid capacity and another 1,000 tons of single super phosphate capacity. -Al-Ahram Egypt hosts Arab conference on hospital management The seventh Arab conference on new trends in hospital management will convene in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Dec. 16-18. The conference is organized by the Arab Administrative Development Organization (ARADO) in tandem with the World Health Organization, ARADO Director General Refat Alfaouri said. The event, sponsored by the Saudi group Al-Mouwasat Medical Services, will be attended by nearly 100 experts from 14 Arab countries: Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan and Morocco, Alfaouri said in a press release Wednesday. The conference will touch on medical variables and their impact on hospital management and health services, means of improving hospital conditions by improving the skills of the administrative staff as well as challenges and obstacles that face health service providers. ARADO was established in 1961 as a specialized organization affiliated with the League of Arab States, to assume the responsibility of promoting administrative development in the Arab region. ARADO directs its efforts and provides its programs and services to the governments of 20 Arab member states as well as to public and private institutions involved in administrative development in the Arab countries. -MENA EU and Egypt sign agreement on energy The European Commission and the Arab Republic of Egypt will signed in Brussels a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance EU-Egypt energy cooperation. The areas covered by the MOU are energy market reforms and convergence of Egypt's energy market with that of the EU, promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency, development of energy networks as well as technological and industrial cooperation. The MOU will be signed by Commissioner for External Relations and Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs and Egypt's Minister of Foreign AffairsAhmed Aboul Gheit. Ferrero-Waldner said, "Egypt is a strategic energy partner for the EU . the sixth largest natural gas supplier to the EU and a key transit country between the Middle East, Africa and the EU. "We share the same energy concerns and opportunities: diversification and security of energy supplies, transport and markets, market reforms, development and modernization of energy infrastructure, improving energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
