Egypt

Rise in debt and unemployment, decline in growth rates and recovery in stokes

The main EGX 30 Index closed the January transactions for the stock exchange at 7.405 points, by a rise of 9.18%. The EGX 70 Index rose about 7.83%, closing at 585 points, while the larger-scale EGX 100 Index rose by 7.48% to close at 992 points. The Egyptian Stock Exchange gained during the trading of January about 25.1 billion pounds, prompting the market capital for the shares of companies listed on the stock exchange to reach about 451.9 billion pounds (an increase of 5.8%). The economic indicators of 2013 showed a rise in the total external debt that reached $49.3 billion, by an increase of $8.8 billion dollars, while domestic debt reached 1590 billion pounds, an increase of 60 billion pounds. The unemployment rate also rose to 14.6 % by the end of last year after it reached 11% in 2012 due to the political situation. The growth rate did not exceed 2.6% while the population growth rate reached 2.2%. Egypt seeks to expand its bilateral investment cooperation with Qatar by projects worth an estimated $18 billion in industry, tourism and energy production. Egypt aims at supporting giant national industries and implementing successful partnerships and fruitful relationships with China and South Korea, as well as the Arabian Gulf, in a number of tourism and business projects, in an investment of more than 1 billion EGP. China is establishing its first investment zone in Egypt worth $2 billion. According to “Business and Finance Club Magazine”, the economic situation in Egypt requires an urgent emergency recovery plan to boost and rebuild the economy, in a way that ensures development and creates job opportunities that rescue Egyptians from poverty that targets 40% of the population.