Egypt occupies advanced position among emerging economies

"Egypt occupied the first position among the emerging markets regarding economic development, achieving a growth rate of 6.5 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the first half of this year," according to a recent report released by the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC).

"Egypt also ranked second after China with regard to industrial development, rating 9.4 per cent annually," the report said.

Meantime, Egypt occupied the third position among the developing countries in terms of lower inflation rates which amounts to 2.2 % annually after China (1.4 per cent) and Malaysia (1.5 per cent), the report added.

"Volume of domestic liquidity increased from L.E. 247.9 billion in April 2000 to L.E. 275.6 billion during the same month of this year," the report said.

Aggregate deposits of the banking machinery, excluding the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), increased from L.E. 252.4 billion in April 2000 to L.E. 282.3 during the same month of this year.

"This included the government deposits which stepped up from L.E. 37.6 billion to L.E. 42 billion and the non-governmental deposits which surged from L.E. 214.8 billion to L.E. 240.3 billion during the said period," the report said.

"Average interest rate on treasury bonds receded from 9.1 % in July 2000 to 9.04 % during the same month of this year," according to the report.

"Meanwhile, average interest rate on deposits in the Egyptian pound increased from 9.25 % to 9.50 %, while that on the deposits in the US dollar decreased to 3.19 % from 6.27 % and that of lending and discount rate dropped from 12 % to 11 % during the same period," the report said.

"Volume of banks' credit facilities stepped up from L.E. 224.4 billion to L.E. 238.4 billion," the report said.

In the meantime, foreign currency reserves of the CBE declined from $ 15 billion in April 2000 to $ 14.3 billion during the same month of this year.

Regarding the trade balance, the report registered an increase in the volume of exports from L.E. 5.4 billion during the period from January-April 2000 to L.E. 5.9 billion during the same period of this year.

"Volume of imports also surged up from L.E. 15.7 billion to L.E. 16.5 billion," according to the report.

Finally, the report referred to an increase in the US dollar exchange rate from L.E. 3.45 to L.E. 3.89 during the said period.