ABSTRACT
With respect to its economic reform program, Egypt was often criticised in the early 1990s by international financial institutions for its caution; the argument went that in order for the reforms to be effective, Egypt must ‘go all the way’ with its structural adjustment program, in particular with privatisation, which according to these institutions had been carried out at a pace that is too slow to be fully effective. Since Egypt embarked on its latest stage of structural reform program in 1996, however, the program moved, in the words of Egypt’s economic minister Yousef Boutros-Ghali, from ‘the hormonal exuberance of adolescence to the cruising speed of adulthood’.192 The privatisation program in particular sped up; by the year 2000, 80% of the Egyptian economy will be in private hands.193
