Country Profile
From The Report: Egypt 2020
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One of the world’s oldest civilisations, Egypt has long been central to the development of the MENA region and has built an extensive international trade network, benefitting from its location at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and Asia. As the world’s 14th-most populous country and the most populous nation in the Arab world, Egypt also benefits from a large, rapidly expanding population. These underlying fundamentals should help the country to continue on a path to long-term growth, despite the disruption caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic. ­­ This chapter contains a viewpoint from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Strategic connections: Egypt continues to leverage its location at the heart of the MENA region to build an extensive trade network
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One of the world’s oldest civilisations, Egypt has long been central to the development of the MENA region, integrating ideas from the Greek and Roman empires and building an extensive international trade network. The latter forms an important part of Egypt’s development policy today. Even during challenging times, the country has increasingly sought to engage with a range of global markets in order to boost its own prosperity. History The territory that is now Egypt has been inhabited…

Viewpoint

Regional leadership: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, on measures to support economic growth and the importance of working together
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Viewpoint:Abdel Fattah El Sisi Pandemics require the world to unite and act promptly to curb the spread of diseases and find vaccines. Vaccines must be available to everyone when they are developed, because protecting humanity against such health threats is the responsibility of the world as a whole. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, Egypt has provided assistance to a number of countries to help alleviate the impact of the pandemic. This has displayed global solidarity. Egypt has…

Overview

Weathering the storm: Recent economic reforms should help it to mitigate the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic
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Although the country’s constitution dates from 2014, Egypt has been a presidential republic since the overthrow of the Muhammed Ali dynasty in 1952. Prior to 2019 the president served an initial four-year term, which could then be followed by a second term. However, after a referendum in April of that year, the public voted in favour of extending the presidential term to six years. With the next elections scheduled to take place in 2022, two additional six-year terms would allow President…

Analysis

Game-changer: A new trade deal lays the groundwork for the acceleration of integration and intra-continental trade in Africa
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Although trade flows among African states remain below their potential, an ambitious project is under way to accelerate economic integration and significantly expand intra-continental trade. Spearheaded by the African Union (AU), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement was signed in March 2018 and aims to reduce both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. As of December 2019 the AfCFTA had the backing of 54 out of the 55 member states of the AU. With the legal framework…

Overview

Egypt CEO Survey:
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Before the onset of Covid-19, Egypt’s economy was among the strongest performers in the MENA region. Business leaders are largely confident that a number of sectors stand to benefit from positive fundamental changes brought about by the pandemic. The country’s CEOs have made it clear that the crisis could lead to structural benefits in the long term, such as increasing industrial activity, accelerating digitalisation and making firms more competitive. Demand for ICT and retail services has soared as the pandemic and resultant measures have accelerated a number of behavioural shifts, ranging from remote working to greater uptake of e-commerce.…

Overview

CEOs share their thoughts on: Egypt’s post-Covid-19 future
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Before the onset of Covid-19, Egypt’s economy was among the strongest performers in the MENA region, with a Reuters poll from January 2020 putting the country’s economic growth at 5.8% for FY 2019/20 and 5.9% for FY 2020/21. This is more than double the regional average for MENA, which the World Bank estimated at 2.6% for 2019/20. These forecasts since have been revised, with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development now predicting Egypt’s economy will expand by 0.5% in 2020 and the IMF estimating 2% growth. Egypt was somewhat fortunate that the pandemic occurred after the conclusion of a $12bn IMF-backed reform programme,…