Egyptian economy in progress

In its recent report on the emerging markets, the Economist magazine said that Egypt has realized an increase of 6.5% in the GDP in the year 2000 against 3%, 3.3%, 6% and 8.1% in Israel, South Africa, India and China respectively.

The report showed that the industrial product amounted to 9.4% in the year 2000 against 0.3% in Israel last February, 11.5% in China last April and 1.8% in South Africa last March.

On the other hand, Egyptian consumer price indicator hit 2.4% last march in comparison to 1.2% in Israel and 6.5% in South Africa last April. The Egyptian foreign reserves amounted to $12.9 billion last January against $23.5 billion in Israel last April, $6.2 billion in South Africa last March and $178 billion in China last February.

The report highlighted that the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound against US Dollar rose to 388 Piasters, or 12.7%, last march against 344 Piasters in March last year. On the other hand, the US Dollar exchange rate against the Israeli Shekel decreased from 4.21 to 4.13 in March.

The average short term interest amounted in Egypt scored 9.08% against 5.2% in Israel and 10.71% in South Africa, according to the report.

In a concomitant report, the Financial Times Magazine praised the improvement process of the infrastructure of the Egyptian stock exchange. It said that inclusion of Egypt in the Morgan Stanley Index resulted in a state of pessimism in the investors circles.

This inclusion means real inflow of no less than US$ 540 million of investment, of which foreign and joint venture banks will have the lion share.