Known for a long time pyramids and ancient civilization song, Egypt is the largest Arab country has played a pivotal role in Middle East politics in the modern era. The history of ancient Egypt and being one of the first Middle Eastern countries that opened up to the West after the invasion of Napoleon gave it high status and made it at the forefront of intellectual and cultural leader in the region. Egypt is characterized by being a source of one of the oldest civilizations in the world and, of course combining breathtaking mountains tall, turquoise beaches and deserts rich addition to being located on the Nile River, one of the longest rivers in the world and the cradle of ancient civilizations. In this article we will cover the economic side of Egypt.
Egypt's economy is the second largest economy in the Arab world after Saudi Arabia but faces the problem of increasing population growth. It is one of the most diversified economies in the Middle East where agriculture, industry, tourism and services sectors pose similar proportions in the basic composition. Manpower distributed to various sectors including the services sector (51%), agriculture (32%) and the industrial sector (17%). Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, Suez Canal revenues, tourism, taxation, cultural production, media, petroleum exports. In addition to the transfers of more than three million Egyptians abroad, mostly from the Gulf states and the United States, Europe and Australia. However, the rapid population growth and limited the amount of land suitable for agriculture and the economy drain the country's resources.
Egypt is the largest exporter of cotton in the world, that the textiles sector is huge to a large extent. Other industries, cement production, iron and steel and Aalkimoyat, fertilizers, rubber products, refined, tobacco sugar, canned foods, cotton seed oil ... despite the fact that the agricultural sector employs about one-third of the labor force most of the arable land used to grow cotton, pushing Egypt Astorad to about half of its food needs.
Most economic activity is located on the banks of the Nile River, which passes the high fertility in the center of Egypt. In the former central economy it was in the era of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, but was open to a great extent during the reign of former presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. Cairo worked to attract many foreign investors in steps to boost growth and achieve economic reform between 2004 and 2008.
Egyptian economy improved significantly in the nineties as a result of several arrangements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the movement of a number of Arab countries, especially to reduce a large proportion of its debt crisis.
Poor living conditions and declining job opportunities for the average Egyptian citizen was the reason for dissatisfaction Egyptian public opinion. It resulted in an unrest that took place in 2011, prompting the Egyptian government to make many of the economic reforms and try to increase social spending heavily to address public discontent, but the uncertainty over the political situation was one of the reasons for slower economic growth and the reduction of state revenues. The tourism, manufacturing, and construction among the hardest hit sectors in the Egyptian economy, which led to high levels of unemployment and declining economic growth. Since 2011, Cairo is facing the problem of low foreign exchange reserves and dependence on foreign aid, especially from the Gulf countries to finance imports and energy products. So as to prevent further devaluation of the Egyptian pound for fear of high inflation.
Currently on the economic level there are attempts by Egypt to overcome the uncertainty that swept the country in the recent period by the development of policies, programs and projects long-term. The main objective is to ensure long-term sustainability by correcting the imbalances caused by poor distribution of funds, revenue weakness and lack of energy exploitation in the right way.
