Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman agreed to set up a $16bn investment fund on Saturday and settled a long-standing maritime dispute as the Saudi king continued his rare visit to the country. 
A day after Salman announced a plan to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt, the heads of state met at the historic Abdeen Palace in Cairo to oversee the inking of a string of agreements Egypt hopes will help boost its battered economy. 
In one of the most high-profile announcements, Cairo said it had agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia, officially placing two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory. 
The Saudi king’s visit to Egypt has been seen as a show of support for Sisi, the former military chief who toppled his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Mursi in 2013. 
Since touching down on Thursday, Salman and his delegation have announced a slew of investments in Egypt. 
A live Egyptian state television broadcast on Saturday showed an official announcing the latest agreements, signed by a representative of each country. 
The two nations agreed “to set up a Saudi-Egyptian investment fund with a capital of 60bn Saudi riyals ($16bn),” the announcer said, giving no further details. 
More than a dozen other accords, including a memorandum of understanding to set up an industrial zone in Egypt, were also announced. 
Saudi Arabia, a key backer of Sisi since the overthrow of Mursi, has since pumped billions of dollars in aid and investment into Egypt. 
Egyptian officials and media have heaped accolades on Salman.
But the agreement announced by the cabinet on Saturday to settle the dispute over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir provoked an immediate backlash in Egypt, where thousands tweeted a hashtag accusing Sisi of selling the islands. 
Tiran had historically been a Saudi island ‘leased’ to Egypt in 1950. 
Earlier on Saturday, Salman paid a visit to the prestigious Al-Azhar mosque. 
He was due to address parliament yesterday and receive an honorary doctorate from Cairo University on Monday. 
An Egyptian government official had said the deals agreed with Saudi Arabia, excluding the investment fund, would amount to $1.7bn. 
On Friday, both leaders lavished praise on each other’s countries and their relationship. 
“This visit comes as a confirmation of the pledges of brotherhood and solidarity before the two brotherly countries,” Sisi said in a televised speech. 
Saudi Arabia has played a key role in propping up Egypt’s economy, whose vital tourism industry has been devastated by years of political turmoil and militant attacks.


Egypt urban inflation falls in March for third consecutive month


Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation eased for the third consecutive month in March to 9% from 9.1% in February, the official statistics showed yesterday, as the government has struggled to keep rampant inflation in check. 
Core inflation, which excludes items such as fruit and vegetables as their prices fluctuate widely, rose however, jumping to 8.4% year-on-year in March, up from 7.5% in February. 
Urban inflation began to decline after the central bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points in December, citing inflationary pressure. 
The government has also taken a series of measures to keep the price of basic goods from rising, rolling out army trucks to distribute subsidised food items for its poorest and identifying key goods to monitor for price rises. 
Last month, Egypt’s central bank devalued the pound, a move the government had been reluctant to carry out because of fear it would spark inflation. 
The central bank said it would move to a more flexible exchange rate regime, in an effort to rebalance markets and ease a foreign exchange shortage that had stifled business activity and hit confidence.