Reuters first with Egypt’s stimulus plan forecast

Egyptian financial stocks rose after Reuters was alone on Dec. 26 with Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghalis forecast that an off-budget economic stimulus plan would inject up to $3.4 billion into the economy and boost growth by as much as 0.75 percentage point. The market had already been aware that a stimulus plan was in the works but details including the value, the timing, the terms and the projected effect on economic growth were unknown until Reuters correspondent Marwa Awad obtained them from Boutros-Ghali at the ruling NDP partys annual conference. Boutros-Ghali’s comments to Reuters were quoted widely by local brokerages, and traders said they sent financial stocks including CIB higher; CIB rose more than 4 percent over the following four trading days. The chart shows the movement of CIB shares.