AT TIMES last year it looked as if Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s authoritarian president, was losing his grip. Faced with a faltering economy, he told Egyptians that they needed to sacrifice—by not eating or sleeping, if necessary. Perhaps they could send him their spare change too, he said.
Rummaging behind the cushions hardly seemed enough to turn around an economy plagued by political instability, and by terrorism that had scared off tourists and foreign investors. Moreover, while exhorting his countrymen to tighten their belts, Mr Sisi was squandering billions of dollars of aid from Gulf states on wasteful subsidies and on defending Egypt’s overvalued currency. The futility of these policies can be seen in a handful of figures: a gaping fiscal deficit that hit 12% of GDP last year; ballooning public debt (101% of GDP) and high unemployment (over 12%).
Yet there are signs that Mr Sisi is starting to put Egypt back on a more sensible economic track. In order to obtain a $12bn loan from the IMF last year, his government has raised the price of subsidised fuel and electricity, brought in new taxes and allowed the Egyptian pound to...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2m77RM5
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