Egypt

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) producers and retailers in Egypt face a somewhat mixed outlook in the short term, with limits on disposable incomes and high inflation making many Egyptians cautious about overspending. However, with such favourable demographics, long-term prospects appear more positive as the economy recovers, consumer confidence rises and export opportunities open up.

Over the past 15 years, Egypt has built a growing reputation as a centre for export-oriented ICT services, particularly business and knowledge process outsourcing (BPO and KPO), with revenues that exceeded $1.1bn in 2011, according to a Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) presentation last year.

With up to as many as 16m Egyptians estimated to lack adequate housing, the government in Egypt has taken steps to ease access to home loans for low-income groups, while at the same time looking at options for spurring private sector developers to build low-cost residential units.

The announcements for a number of multi-billion dollar projects are indicative of rising confidence in Egypt’s retailing sector, bolstered by the economy’s favourable long-term fundamentals, although there is still a certain wariness over the country’s macroeconomic performance.

Despite emerging from one of its weakest performances in years, the Egyptian tourism sector shows signs that could portend a modest recovery in 2014.

The past year has been another challenging 12 months for Egypt, but going into 2014, the outlook is more bullish for a country that still offers attractive long-term fundamentals.