Egypt Economy

The global economic crisis that struck in 2008 propelled Egypt’s main sources of revenue – taxation, remittances, tourism and Suez Canal receipts – into significant declines. The downward trends seen across these important sources of income during 2009 demonstrated that, despites the nation’s relatively robust performance during those difficult...

Subsidies have played a significant part in the Egyptian economy since the era of President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s – a time in which numerous Middle Eastern autocracies sought the approval of the populace through the provision of food and other essentials at below-market prices. Sardonically described as the “democracy of bread”...

The effort to secure international funding in the wake of the 2011 uprising has become one of the more salient economic issues for Egypt over the past year. The nation first turned to the IMF in May 2011, with Samir Radwan, then-finance minister, citing the social justice demands of the people in the wake of the revolution as the primary...

The last 18 months have carried Egypt through a radical political transformation. President Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled Egypt for three decades, stepped down amid nationwide protests. Mubarak’s former ruling party, the National Democratic Party, has been dissolved, and for the first time in history, Egyptians participated in fair and free...

One of the most frequent observations made of the Arab Spring throughout the Middle East, particularly in Egypt, has been the performance of religious movements. For many in the West, the triumphs of Al Nahda in Tunisia or that of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) are symbolic of a broader narrative sweeping...

The local labour market has long been viewed with a degree of equivocation by observers, who frequently describe it as both an asset and a potential liability. With 45% of the population between the ages of 15 and 39 and around 200,000 graduates entering the workforce each year, the advantages for domestic and international firms dependent on an...