Egypt

With the largest population in the Middle East, a relatively developed life insurance industry and a government determined to pursue ambitious infrastructure development, Egypt is a promising market for both domestic and foreign insurers. In 2016 premiums collected by the sector grew by more than 12% over the previous year, and an ongoing...

Once reserved for ambitious start-ups and industry-leading tech operators, financial technology ( fintech) has since caught the attention of major private sector firms and government planners alike, becoming a regular feature in budget speeches and strategic development plans. As fintech progressively plays a larger part in the lives of...

For the past year, discussion surrounding Egypt’s monetary policy has been almost completely dominated by a single criterion: a spiralling inflation rate which is having a deleterious effect on business growth, as well as on the lives of ordinary citizens. After an elevated, but manageable, average inflation rate of just over 10% going back to...

The implementation of Egypt’s new investment law in 2017 was broadly welcomed as an important advance in the country’s bid to make itself more attractive to domestic and foreign capital. However, the six-place decline of Egypt in the World Bank’s “Doing Business Report 2018” is a concern for a government keen to kick-start private sector...

Since the waves of social unrest that swept across the Middle East in 2011, governments from Morocco to Oman have responded with strategies aimed at including a greater proportion of society within the nation’s formal economy; however, these efforts to date have met limited success. According to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, a...