The history of the Egyptian Economy witnessed several turning points, but the economy has kept showing resilience and soundness during curbing the negative implications, which were resulted from shocks and external vulnerabilities.
The degree of economic resilience and good governance has consequently been increased and boosted with a high degree of well-coordinated policies, considering the public opinion as a cornerstone in the success of any implemented policies with effective economic and social responses.
It is worth mentioning the remarkable success of the economic and social reform program (2016-2019) launched in November 2016 helped to further boost the degree of economic resilience, consolidate the economic governance, promote the soundness of financial markets, and achieve better management of debt sustainability.
The global COVID-19 crisis isn’t the only external and global crisis that the Egyptian Economy has successfully managed and mitigated its risks; the global financial and debt crises that were occurred throughout the past decades have negatively impacted the economies of developing and emerging as well as advanced countries. The history of the Egyptian Economy showed the richness of natural persified resources and proved how the economy was strong enough to curb economic and political instabilities thanks to the adequate policies implemented to contain negative consequences, with a consistent growing resilience towards domestic and external shocks as well as global financial imbalances.
Amid the Global COVID-19 crisis (2020-2021), Egypt has maintained positive rates of economic growth and stable economic outlook. This was mainly due to the solidity and resilience of economy as well as the persified nature of economy in its productive structure, in addition to following proactive approach and effective communication strategies with the public besides a well-governed crisis risk management. Notably, Egypt adopted pre-emptive policies amid the outbreak of COVID-19 crisis, which resulted in a rapid positive dealing with the negative implications through providing a supportive financial package for the Egyptian economy, in addition to the harmony of the monetary and fiscal policies in managing the liquidity and maintaining the national economy reform process.
It is worth noting that the Egyptian economy achieved significant developments, especially in the most promising sectors, including the manufacturing sector, the agricultural sector, the communications and information technology sector, as well as other service and productive sectors. The rates of goods and service exports increased in the midst of the outbreak of the global Covid-19 crisis, while maintaining positive economic growth rates and a steady rise in foreign exchange reserves to record $ 40.343 billion in April 2021, continuing to rise for the eleventh month in a row, after being subjected to a significant decline in the first three months of the outbreak of the global Covid-19 crisis in March, April and May 2020, in addition to the governance of managing the sustainability of public debt, stability of financial conditions, and economic, investment activities; This confirms the solidity, governance and resilience of the Egyptian economy resulting from the persification of the productive structure and the growing resilience of the Egyptian economy in its ability not only to absorb external and internal shocks, but also to overcome them and take advantage of such shocks and crises opportunities and challenges.
Given the outstanding performance of the Egyptian Economy, a wide range of international financial and economic institutions have praised the remarkable success of Egypt in the economic and financial crises risk management, which was magnified in the positive and flexible containment of the direct and indirect negative implications of the global Covid-19 crisis. In May 2021, the Standard & Poor's credit rating agency has kept the credit rating of Egypt in the two local and foreign currencies unchanged at the level of “B” in the long-term and short-term, while also maintaining the stable outlook for the Egyptian economy, the “Stable Outlook”, for the time. This is considered the third in a row since the outbreak of the global Covid-19 crisis in March 2020, compared to countries with similar or higher credit ratings, at a time when economic conditions deteriorated in most similar and emerging countries; reflecting that the pressures on external and government debt indicators will be temporary, and will gradually decrease from the beginning of next year 2022, supported by the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and current account revenues. According to Standard & Poor's estimates, it indicated that the Egyptian economy is able to overcome the negative repercussions resulting from the global Covid-19 crisis thanks to the steady improvement in major economic indicators such as the stability of public financial conditions, the existence of a stock of foreign exchange reserves, as well as the continuation of the government's efforts in implementing financial, economic and structural reforms that would further improve the business environment and ensure the sustainability of economic development.
Most importantly, among the MENA Region and Africa, Egypt succeeded to maintain the path of continued reforms without halting the implementation of reforms amid the global COVID-19 crisis. This confirms the worthiness of the Egyptian economy not only to manage the crises, but also to keep sound economic performance with positive economic indicators. In the context of continuing tireless efforts, the Egyptian government has taken serious and rapid steps towards preparing the National Structural Reforms Program (NSRP) which is on the 27th of April 2021. The NSRP is the second phase of the economic and social reform program, , targeting the real sector for the first time, bolstering the economy to maintain achieving balanced and sustainable green inclusive growth.
Noteworthy, these new packages of structural reforms wouldn’t cause any financial burden to both government and citizens, as the NSRP came in the line with Egypt’s Vision 2030, supported by Egypt’s National Investment Plans and Public Budget.
In light of the above, the international financial institutions and credit rating agencies show trustfulness in the Egyptian economy and its ability to deal positively with the COVID-19 crisis and to overcome any negative consequences. This is mainly due to the radical continued economic and structural reforms and well-coordinated policies that Egypt adopted and supported by the Egyptian public opinion. As such, the Egyptian Economy is recognized as a remarkable story of success in economic and financial risks management, which is well-concluded by the launch of the National Structural Reform Program (NSRP) in April 2021. Accordingly, Egypt has markedly succeeded in founding the basis for a more resilient and balanced economy, considering four main aspects; well-sequenced structural and legislative reforms, coordinated economic policies, and efficient and effective social policies and sound communication strategies in terms of public opinion awareness.
Last but not least, it is noticed the key success factors of the Egyptian Economy are mainly stemmed from a well-structured and founded economic framework. These key factors are mainly ;(i) the consistent coordination between dynamic economic policies and integration of developmental plans, supported by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with specific targets and exact timeframe, (ii) the engagement of the public in decision making and policy responses tracker, (iii) the solid foundation of a persified productive economy, lowering the dependence on the external economies, creating well-based buffers of foreign reserves to cover sudden shocks, (iv) the proactive approach followed in managing economic risks at domestic and international levels, and (v) the continued collaboration between the executive and legislative authorities in legislating laws and executive regulations to regulate the economy with high degree of accountability and transparency as well as governance, besides legislating new laws compatible with the new advancements; coping the green economy transition and digitization as well as the fourth industrial revolution.
Follow the latest news on Google News
