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| ROUND UP: The month at a glance |
INFLATION FALLS:
Egypt's consumer price index rose by 3.6 percent in the 12 months
to the end of December 1998, down from the 3.8 percent rise in the
12 months to the end of November 1998, the Central Agency for Public
Mobilization & Statistics reported. The CPI rose 0.1 percent
in December itself, reversing course after dropping 0.3 percent
in November under the influence of falling prices for food and beverages
- which make up more than half the index. CPI inflation for the
12 months to the end of December 1997 was 4.5 percent.
LNG DEAL MISSED:
Minister of Petroleum Hamdi El Banbi and Suez Canal Authority Chairman
Ahmed Fadel traveled to Qatar in February, where they failed to
produce an agreement on the discount Qatar will receive on shipments
of liquid natural gas through the Suez Canal but se-cured a pledge
to do so by the end of the year. Qatar says it needs a 45 percent
discount for its shipments, deeper than Egypt's standard 35 percent
discount for LNG, to compete in European markets.
EGYPT AID CUT:
International donors in February cut their 1999 outlays to Egypt
by about $1 billion, attributing the decrease to diminished need.
The U.S. offered $800 million, the largest tranche among the $1.5
billion worth of grants and concessional loans pledged for Egypt.
Egypt will also have access to another $1 billion in nonconcessional
loans.
PORT CONTRACT AWARDED:
The Ministry of Transport & Communications has awarded a 450
million guilder (£E 785 million) contract to four companies
to dredge a channel and to build a 2,300-meter wave breaker for
the East Port Said Port. Work will start immediately and will run
for two years. The contract went to Dutch companies Koninklijke
Boskalis Westminster NV and Ballast Nedam NV, Belgian company Jan
de Nul and South Korea's Hyundai.
TOURISM TURNS UP:
Egyptian tourism recorded its first year-on-year gain in 12 months
in November 1998, when the number of tourists visiting Egypt jumped
22 percent from the same month the year before to 323,000, the Central
Bank of Egypt reported. November 1998's total also surpassed November
1996's pre-Luxor-crisis total of 318,000 tourists.
RESERVES FALL:
Egypt's net international reserves fell to $20.00 billion in November
1998 from $20.05 billion in October 1998, hitting their lowest level
since April 1997, the Central Bank of Egypt said. Reserves stood
at $20.42 billion in November 1997, but have shrunk under the pressure
of diminished tourism receipts following that month's Luxor massacre
and falling oil prices. November 1998's reserves were sufficient
to cover 14 months worth of imports.
FRANCE WINS BOOTS:
Electricité de France International S.A. has been chosen
by the Egyptian Electricity Authority to erect two 650-megawatt
power-generation plants under the build, own, operate and transfer
system at a cost of around $900 million. EDF will supply power to
the authority at the extremely low rate of 2.37 cents per kilowatt
hour, a rate said to be the lowest in the world for a BOOT-type
arrangement. The plants will be built east of Port Said and off
the northwest shore of the Gulf of Suez to supply the large-scale
port and industrial projects in those areas.
CANAL FEES RECOVER:
The Suez Canal Authority reported that December's receipts bucked
the 1998 downtrend by increasing to $155 million, up more than $4
million from December 1997 despite a drop in the number of vessels
using the canal. As a result, the SCA reported 1998 revenues of
$1.76 billion, down just 1.5 percent from 1997, despite the fact
that revenues for most of the months during 1998 had been off 2
percent to 3 percent.
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