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ROUND UP: The month at a glance

CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT NARROWS: An improving balance of trade in the fourth quarter helped narrow Egypt’s current account def-icit to $1.71 billion, or about 2 percent of GDP, in the fiscal year ended June from the $2.48 billion, or 3 percent of GDP, deficit Egypt reported the year before. Egypt reported fourth-quarter revenue from petrol-eum and petroleum products of $321 million, the highest in five quarters. (See story, page 18)

SECURITIES TAX CUT: A ministerial committee has agreed in principle to exempt institutional and corporate investors from capital gains taxes on trade in stocks and bonds. Individual investors are already ex-empt. The amendment must also be approved by the parliament.

TELECOM MANDATE AWARD: The state-owned fixed-line monopoly Telecom Egypt has named ABN Amro Rothschild and Commercial International Bank (Egypt) as advisers on the sale of up to 20 percent of its shares in an initial public offering worth at least £E 2 billion.

INFLATION STAYS LOW: Egypt’s consumer price index rose 2.9 percent in the 12 months to the end of July 1999, unchanged from June. Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in July itself, down from 0.3 percent in June. Egypt’s CPI rose by 4.3 percent in the 12 months to July 1998.

BANK PRIVATIZATION ON HOLD: Egypt has no plans at present to sell shares in the nation’s big four state-owned commercial banks, President Hosny Mubarak said in remarks reported by the weekly pol-itical magazine October. Mubarak said the state-owned banks were in the process of selling their shares in smaller banks, but said talk of privatizing the big four banks themselves was merely rumor, contradicting last year’s pledges that the government was working to sell shares in one of the banks by the end of 1998.

TOURISM STAYS UP: Egyptian tourist arrivals continue to recover, with 348,000 tourists arriving in June, up from 250,000 in June 1998 and 299,000 in June 1997. Revenues from tourism also continued to recover. Egypt brought in $3.2 billion from travel, a broad measure of tourism, in the fiscal year ended June 30, up from $2.9 billion in the year before and approaching the $3.6 billion recorded for the fiscal year ended June 1997. (See story, page 34)

RESERVES FALL AGAIN: Egypt’s net international reserves fell $160 million in June to $18.07 billion, their lowest level in at least 34 months. The monthly decline, the 10th in a row, came as Egypt continued to spend its reserves to fund its current account deficit. Egypt’s re-serves at the end of June were sufficient to cover about 13 months worth of imports. Egypt’s net international reserves stood at $20.12 billion in June 1998.

EU DEAL NEARS: Egypt and the European Union will likely initial the final draft of a long-delayed free-trade agreement in October, Gamal Bayoumi, Egypt’s lead negotiator on the pact, said in September. Bay-oumi said the Euro-Mediterranean association agreement was with the Cabinet and would be ready for initialing once the Cabinet gave its final approval. Formal signing could come as early as November or as late as January, Bayoumi said. (See story, page 20).

EGYPT COULD HOST MENA: Egypt believes that there is a good chance the MENA regional economic conference will be held next year and is willing to host the event, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said in September. The conference series, suspended last year due to deterioration in the peace process, was more likely to resume following recent progress toward peace between Pal-estinians and Israelis, Moussa said, but remained contingent on progress on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks.

GAS RESERVES GROW: Recent gas discoveries in the offshore Nile Delta have boosted Egypt’s estimated reserves of natural gas to 40 trillion cubic feet from 36 trillion cubic feet at last estimate, Minister of Pet-roleum Hamdi El Banbi said in mid-August. There have been seven gas discoveries in the first half of 1999, El Banbi said.

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