Growing world confidence in Egyptian economy

Egypt's Prime Minister Atef Ebeid Sunday said that the confidence of international financial institutions in the Egyptian economy was on the rise day after day due to rising natural resources, efficient administration and optimal utilization of resources.

"Egypt has succeeded in increasing its savings from LE 20 billion to LE 200 billion in less than 20 years. A quarter of the figure is in foreign currencies," he told the opening session of an Arab financial forum.

Over two decades, the Egyptian economy has attracted some 56 financial and banking saving institutions in addition to 26 offices representing key world banking foundations.

Egypt has launched successful economic reforms underpinned by privatization and deregulation since the early l990s.

Ebeid said that Egypt had collected around $20 billion dollars in reserves, a portion of them used in protecting the local currency from the fallout of world financial turbulence.

Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Ismail Hassan said the number of the state-owned banks is decreasing to only 50 percent within the framework of the government's steps taken to liberalize the financial and banking sectors.