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| ROUND UP: The month at a glance |
NEW CABINET NAMED:
Egypt's market reacted positively to the nation's new government,
named in early October following a referendum that confirmed a fourth
term for President Hosny Mubarak. Turnover was weaker than expected
- 20 of the 33 members of the new Cabinet were holdovers - but optimists
pointed to the elevation of privatization Minister Atef Ebeid to
prime minister and the expanded powers of Economy Minister Youssef
Boutros Ghali as signs that economic re-forms would be accelerated.
TOURISM UP AGAIN:
Egyptian tourist arrivals continue to recover, with 473,000 tourists
arriving in July, up from 385,000 in July 1998 and 425,000 in July
1997, before the industry was flattened by the November 1997 slaying
of 58 tourists in Luxor. Tourists stayed a total of 2.4 million
nights in July, up from 1.7 million nights in July 1998 and 2.0
million nights in July 1997.
CALL FOR BOOT BIDS:
The Egyptian Electricity Authority called on independent power producers
to prequalify for a tender to set up a pair of combined-cycle power
plants on a build-own-operate-transfer, or BOOT, basis. The plants
will be the fourth and fifth of 14 the government is contracting
in an effort to roughly double the country's power output by adding
13,000 megawatts of private power by 2010, at a cost of $7.2 billion.
The plants will be located north of Cairo and at the Red Sea port
city of Safaga. Prequalification documents will be available from
Oct. 9 and are due at noon on Dec. 1, the authority said.
EDF CLOSES WITH GOVERNMENT:
Electricite de France has signed key contracts regarding the establishment
of two build-own-operate-transfer, or BOOT, power plants. Hussein
Lotfy, EdF's adviser in Egypt, said the company signed power-purchase
and usufruct agreements with the Egyptian Electricity Authority,
natural gas supply contracts with Egyptian gas providers Gasco and
City Gas, and letters of guarantee with the Central Bank of Egypt
- a total of four contracts per plant. The contracts settle EdF's
relations with the government regarding the two plants, clearing
the way for the company to begin negotiating a financial package,
Lotfy said. Lotfy put the total cost of the two 650-megawatt, steam
turbine plants at about $850 million and said that EdF expected
to reach financial closure within a year.
CEMENT BID REVEALED:
Egyptian cement importer 4M has bid with Titan Cement Co. of Greece
for the Egyptian government's remaining 74 percent stake in Alexandria
Portland Cement Co., privatization officials said in October. Lafarge
SA of France is also understood to be involved in the bid through
its relationship with Titan, established when the two bid successfully
earlier this year for state-owned Beni Suef Cement Co. 4M and its
partners are bidding against Blue Circle Industries PLC of the U.K.,
which was revealed as a bidder in August.
INFLATION STAYS LOW:
Egypt's consumer price index rose 2.9 percent in the 12 months to
the end of August 1999, unchanged from July. Consumer prices rose
0.3 percent in August itself, up from 0.1 percent in July. Egypt's
CPI rose by 4.3 percent in the 12 months to the end of August 1998.
Egypt reported average consumer-price inflation of 3.8 percent in
the fiscal year ended June 30.
STEEP DROP IN RESERVES:
Egypt's net international reserves fell $484 million in July to
$17.58 billion, their lowest level in at least 35 months. The monthly
decline, the 11th in a row, was the steepest since at least September
1996. The drop came as the Central Bank continued to spend its reserves
to meet demand for dollars, which have been in short supply in Egypt
for more than a year. Egypt's reserves at the end of July were sufficient
to cover 12.4 months worth of imports. Egypt's net international
reserves stood at $20.07 billion in July 1998.
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