On January 19, the spokesperson to presidency, Alaa Youssef announced that Egypt’s government intended to list shares of a certain number of banks and state-owned companies on Cairo bourse.

“The coming period will witness offerings of part of capital of successful Egyptian companies and banks on the bourse,” Mr. Youssef said at the close of a meeting between President Abdel Fattah and various ministers to discuss the market’s poor results.

Bourse of Cairo’s benchmark index, the EGX 30, fell 15% since the start of 2016, thus representing a loss of $5.56 billion (EGP43.5 billion).

Spokesman to presidency did not reveal the companies or sectors concerned by the upcoming listing of shares.

The government still owns vast swathes of the economy, including the three banking giants, National Bank of Egypt, the United Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire, as well as major companies that operate in the oil and gas and real estate industries.