Money supply growth fastest in decade Egyptian money supply jumped 23.9 percent in the year to March, its fastest pace in at least a decade, Reuters reported. The central bank, which has raised interest rates twice this year to control inflation, said M2, the broadest measure of money supply in Egypt s economy, reached LE 756.553 billion. M2 gained 2.43 percent from February. It had risen 22.15 percent in the year to February, according to Reuters. The annual rise in money supply, an indicator of future inflation, was the fastest since at least 1997, the wire agency said. An analyst at Beltone Financial told Reuters that two factors behind money supply growth were expectations that the Egyptian pound will appreciate against the US dollar and government sales of state assets. EFG-Hermes, Egypt s largest investment bank, said in March that Egypt would likely let its pound appreciate about 1.3 percent against the dollar by the end of June to counter the effects of imported inflation. The government had announced its forecasts for economic growth rate to stay around or above 7 percent. The central bank hiked interest rates by half a point last month, citing rising food prices. The bank raised its overnight deposit rate to 9.5 percent and the lending rate to 11.5 percent. The government expects the Egyptian economy to grow at 7 percent. Following is a table for the latest Egyptian M2 money supply figures, according to the central bank s web site. Mogul agrees EWA exit plan Seattle-based Mogul Energy said it had agreed with its partners in the East Wadi Araba (EWA) Concession in Gulf of Suez to sell its stake in the development as part of deal to cover outstanding liabilities from a drilling program on the project. According to Upstream, Mogul said the deal also involved a cash payment of $100,000 and 4 million shares in Sea Dragon Energy, one of Mogul s partners at EWA. Other partners in the project are Egypt Oil and Dover Investments. Mogul cancelled plans to merge with Sea Dragon in November last year. Eye on the market The Cairo and Alexandria stock Exchange announced that the allocation ratio for the first tranche of the Marine and Petroleum Services-Maridive Company Placement is 5.15 percent. The placement was executed on April 4 and frist day of trading is scheduled for Monday, May 5 without any price limits or circuit breakers mechanisms through this trading session only. According to CASE, "The security will be traded next working day as a non price limits security. Misr Beni Suef Cement said it would pay a cash dividend of LE 3 per share, Reuters reported. Shareholders on May 19 would be eligible for the dividend, which would be paid on May 22, it said in a statement on the stock exchange Web site. According to Reuters, shares of the company traded down 1.8 percent at LE 108.01 on Wednesday. UK says 10-year-old British boy has died in Egypt Britain s Foreign Office says a 10-year-old British boy has died while vacationing in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. The Foreign Office says the child died April 19, but declined to provide any more details because of his age. A spokeswoman said Tuesday the office was providing consular assistance to the family. Police in north England said the child was from the Gateshead area, about 450 km north of London. - AP No wheat deal signed at France/Egypt meeting PARIS: French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier and Egypt s Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid discussed sales of French wheat to Egypt at a meeting on Wednesday, but no deal was signed, a French official said. Rachid Mohamed Rachid informed (Barnier) as part of a discussion on the world food crisis that he was in talks with private operators to buy French wheat, the official was quoted as saying, adding that such talks are expected to continue. Media reports had suggested that Rachid would discuss buying 1 million tons of French wheat during his visit to France. Ottawa Muslims look to Egypt for imam s replacement Ottawa Muslims have turned to the Egyptian government to help recruit a new imam, after a global search failed to produce an appropriate replacement for Gamal Solaiman, who resigned last year. According to OttawaCitizen.com, after a year of recruiting and auditioning, the Ottawa Muslim Association has not been able to find a candidate with the right mix of Islamic scholarship, fluency in English and knowledge of North American cultural mores that it says is critical for the city s principal imam. The association now says it has no choice but to look to Egypt and its renowned Al-Azhar University to find a new spiritual leader for the 50,000 Muslims in the nation s capital. We are expecting a new imam from Egypt, from Al-Azhar and we want someone who is fluent in Arabic and English and will fit into the North American society. We told the (Egyptian) ambassador our requirements and they ll make sure we have the right person, Mohamad Naim Malik, chairman of the Muslim association s search committee, told the Canadian website. Ramadan starts in September and we d like to have our regular imam in place before September. According to OttawaCitizen.com, Malik said they are most likely to recruit the new imam from a pool of Al-Azhar scholars that the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Affairs (Awqaaf) often sends to Muslim communities abroad.
