Roundtable discussion on “The Economic Crisis in Egypt, Its dimensions and ways to get out of it”

On the 12^th of October 2023, ECFA held a meeting with Dr. Ahmed Galal Former Minister of Finance, this seminar is based on, an initiative from Mr. Mohamed Kasem Rapporteur of the Economic Committee. Participated in the meeting number of ambassadors who are members of the council.

Dr. Ahmed Galal pointed out that the economic crises is one of the vital topics. There are different names for it but there’s consensus that there’s a crises. Also, there’s difference in describing the crises as this depends on the perspective.

Therefore, for describing it, there should be references to refer to it. These references include overall finance balance, growth rate, and social justice.

Concerning the reasons for the economic crises, there are reasons related to macro policies. This include monetary policies and the role of the central bank as it should be limited to inflation policies and to not provoke the holy trinity, this is in addition to the problem of the background of the governor of the central bank.

The other reasons of the current crisis is the moving of exchange rate and its impact on inflation. The finance policies has an impact on the current crisis, as well. In this regard, it’s important to activate the principle of unified arbitrage.

The other reasons for the crisis is related to growth incentives, as the latter is directed to real estate sector other than other sectors. Therefore, it’s important to redirect incentives and policies to other sectors, in addition to reframe custom policies. For the unequal opportunities as a reason for the economic crisis, it’s worth paying attention to education and health sectors through rearranging the priorities, and reconsider policies related to wages.

In seeking a solution for the economic crisis, there’s suggestion to redirect development for policies after focusing on the development through number of projects. For the role of the state in the economy, it’s important to clarify its role as a policy maker and market observer, in addition to rearrange priorities in this regard, and to shed light on the role of politics and political system in this regard, and paying attention to health and education sectors.