The Cairo Centre for Economic and Strategic Studies has called 2014 Egypt’s best economic year since 25 January 2011 in its annual economic report. The report added that 2014 can be labelled as the “beginning of stability and economic growth”.
The report, which reflected on the economic indicators, stated that the economic challenges faced by the Egyptian economy have worsened with the transitional period.
Centre Head Abdel Moneim Al-Sayed said: “These challenges are the result of the accumulation of many policies and the successive economic programmes that have been adopted in unfair policies.”
Al-Sayed said the open-door policy of the seventies and the economic reform programme at the beginning of the nineties led to a rapid economic transformation. Those policies allowed the state to abandon its role as the main actor and planning and policy maker.
He noted that Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb’s government has adopted expansionary policies rather than deflationary policies. He added that the policies adopted after the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on 30 June where “closer to austerity”.
The current Egyptian government is seeking to reduce the budget deficit to 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP) during the fiscal year (FY) 2014/2015, compared to 12% during FY 2013/2014. The government is also aiming to reduce the debt to 90% of the GDP in FY 2014/2015 and reducing it to 80%-85% of GDP in FY 2016/2017.
Al-Sayed said the most significant events of 2014 include: Egypt’s improved relations with Africa; President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s speech at the United Nation General Assembly; collecting EGP 64bn for the Suez Canal development project in eight days; and the repayment of the Qatar deposits.
