The bloc of nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known collectively as BRICS, will be joined by four new MENA countries starting January 2024, as announced at the late August summit in Johannesburg.

Egypt will become a full member of the BRICS club of emerging economies as of January 2024. The group had approved Cairo’s request to join the bloc during its summit in Johannesburg last week.

Egypt hopes its imminent inclusion in the BRICS bloc of developing nations will help ease its shortage of foreign currency and attract new investment, but analysts say it may take time before any benefits appear, Reuters reports.

Coined in 2001 by the British economist Jim O’Neill for the four emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the acronym Bric became Brics in 2011 after South Africa was invited to join the group.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Thursday that the BRICS club of emerging nations will admit six new members, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran, at the start of next year.

Data from an international statistics website shows a “terrifying” expectation of the size of Egypt’s national debt over the next five years. Statista has predicted that the debt will be $510.32 billion in 2028, compared with $132.86bn in 2018, an increase of more than 284 per cent over the ten-year …

The coup leader-turned-president promised Egyptians prosperity, but the country is flat broke.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly expressed Egypt’s aspiration to strengthen cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) during the coming period, especially in light of the great importance of the migration file for Egypt, which hosts 9 million migrants and refugees.

An Egyptian-American activist has filed a federal lawsuit in the US alleging he was kidnapped and unlawfully imprisoned for over 40 days in Dubai last year.

The International Monetary Fund‘s spokesperson Julie Kozack welcomed the Egyptian government’s announcement that it had signed contracts to sell stakes in state-owned entities worth US$1.9 billion.