Egypt is among the top ten emerging economies worldwide, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala Al-Saeed said on the sidelines of the UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020 in London.
Saeed claimed that now is the best time to invest in Egypt, adding that the economic reforms undertaken by the Egyptian government are what helped the country to make the list of the world’s top-ten emerging economies.
She explained that Egypt has a very large market, with 60 per cent being the youth and the whole world is looking at investment in human capital.
Saeed added that Egypt has embarked on a wide range of reforms to invest in infrastructure, such as the development of the road network and the energy and electricity sectors, as well as the development of Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone).
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“The Suez Canal economic zone is a gateway to investment in Africa, which contributes to making Egypt a promising market with distinguished human capital and youth,” Saeed said.
On Monday, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE), also chaired by Saeed, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Actis, a UK-based emerging markets investor, with the aim of enhancing future investments in several sectors in Egypt.
During the end of their four-day-visit to Egypt on Tuesday, the World Bank’s executive managers said that the bank will continue supporting economic reform program IN Egypt, which includes empowering investments in the private sector and creating job opportunities.
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According to Bloomberg, Egypt cut subsidies in 2016 in line with a $12 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and floated the exchange rate of the pound to ease the pressure on demand for the dollar, leading to 33 per cent increase in inflation rate, which was accompanied by a sharp decline in earnings.
According to a November report from Bloomberg, inflation has declined, approaching the lowest level in years which indicated that profits recorded by Egyptian companies have returned to pre-November 2016 rates.
According to a report from Reuters, activity in Egypt’s non-oil private sector contracted in November for the fourth consecutive month, fell to its lowest since September 2017.
