The oil price decline that began in the second half of 2014 has dampened enthusiasm for initial public offerings (IPOs) across the MENA region. The mechanics of this trend are straightforward: oil sales account for the bulk of government revenues in the majority of the region’s hydrocarbon-rich economies, and, as allocation of these revenues...
The year 2016 was a difficult one for exchanges across the MENA region, thanks in large part to stubbornly low oil prices and political unrest. Egypt’s main index reflected the regional malaise for the first half of 2016, with a currency crisis and seemingly intractable fiscal deficit doing little to boost investor confidence. By the second...
Despite strenuous economic circumstances in recent years, Egyptian banks displayed a relatively robust performance in 2016 in terms of profitability, which has, in turn, led to a jump in credit for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. While healthy sector numbers and regulatory reforms have helped foster an increase in...
In early 2016 the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) introduced new regulations that established maximum loan limits for corporate borrowers and imposed affordability criteria for new retail borrowers.
The Basel III banking accords mark the latest step in the long process of harmonising financial regulations across markets, but the nature of their focus – and some of the problems they seek to solve – means that their relevance to the Middle East and Africa’s emerging and frontier markets can sometimes be somewhat limited.
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