ABSTRACT
Egypt’s economic problems are now acute. Real growth has faltered since 1985, unemployment is a growing concern and the annual rate of inflation may be in excess of 30%. Egypt’s principal sources of foreign exchange-oil, remittances, Suez Canal receipts and tourism-have been depressed by the collapse in the oil price and the associated recession in the Gulf. In consequence, both the fiscal and the external accounts have moved into large, and unsustainable, imbalance (see Tables 3.1 and 3.2 at the end of this chapter). Total external debt probably exceeds $45bn (Table 3.3), equivalent to 900% of exports of goods and services, and payments arrears were sizeable and increasing at end-1986.
