Egypt

With its geographical location making it an ideal land bridge between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and one of the major channels of commerce between the Levant, Africa and Arabia, Egypt’s status as a centre of trade was already well established by the era of the Old Kingdom in the third millennium BC.

The fast growth in Egypt’s retail sector took a pause in 2011 and early 2012, as political uncertainty following regime change led many retailers to scale back expansion plans. However, the expectation is that once political stability returns, the increased purchasing power of Egypt’s rapidly-growing population is likely to drive expansion once more...

The country’s widening budget deficit and growing currency pressures seen since the uprising of 2011 have made the efficient use of revenues a primary concern of the Egyptian government. With Suez Canal receipts largely reliant on the fortunes of the global economy and the country’s tourism sector, Egypt’s other major revenue stream, suffering in...

As internet penetration rises and Egyptian consumers seek a growing range of brands, online retailing is expanding. While structural constraints on the segment exist, these are expected to ease in the coming years, and more retailers are tapping into the market.

Efforts to shape the geography of Egypt’s economic development in the modern era date back to the 1970s, since which time it has adopted a number of zonal and incentive-based models. Some have proved more successful than others, but in their entirety they represent a crucial asset as the government turns its attention to reversing the decline in...

The market for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) is in some ways a microcosm of Egypt as a country: established but also in flux. Egypt has one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing populations, and this rate of expansion will create new social demands as well as naturally increase the country’s consumer base. The market preserved a double-...