Overview: Egypt has one of the largest public sectors of all the Third World economies, most industrial plants being owned by the government. Overregulation holds back technical modernization and foreign investment. Even so, the economy grew rapidly during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but in 1986 the collapse of world oil prices and an increasingly heavy burden of debt servicing led Egypt to begin negotiations with the IMF for balance-of-payments support. As part of the 1987 agreement with the IMF, the government agreed to institute a reform program to reduce inflation, promote economic growth, and improve its external position. The reforms have been slow in coming, however, and the economy has been largely stagnant for the past three years. The addition of 1 million people every seven months to Egypt's population exerts enormous pressure on the 5% of the total land area available for agriculture.

GDP: $37.0 billion, per capita $700; real growth rate 1.0% (1990 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 26% (FY90)

Unemployment rate: 15% (1989 est.)

Budget: revenues $7 billion; expenditures $11.5 billion, including capital expenditures of $4 billion (FY89 est.)

Exports: $3.8 billion (f.o.b., 1990); commodities--crude and refined petroleum, cotton yarn, raw cotton, textiles, metal products, chemicals; partners--EC, Eastern Europe, US, Japan

Imports: $11.4 billion (f.o.b., 1989); commodities--machinery and equipment, foods, fertilizers, wood products, durable consumer goods, capital goods; partners--EC, US, Japan, Eastern Europe

External debt: $52 billion (December 1990 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 2-4% (1989 est.); accounts for 24% of GDP

Electricity: 11,273,000 kW capacity; 42,500 million kWh produced, 780 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: textiles, food processing, tourism, chemicals, petroleum, construction, cement, metals

Agriculture: accounts for 20% of GNP and employs more than one-third of labor force; dependent on irrigation water from the Nile; world's sixth-largest cotton exporter; other crops produced include rice, corn, wheat, beans, fruit, vegetables; not self-sufficient in food; livestock--cattle, water buffalo, sheep, and goats; annual fish catch about 140,000 metric tons

Economic aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $15.7 billion; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $9.3 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $2.9 billion; Communist countries (1970-89), $2.4 billion

Currency: Egyptian pound (plural--pounds); 1 Egyptian pound (5E) = 100 piasters

Exchange rates: Egyptian pounds (5E) per US$1--2.9030 (January 1991), 2.7072 (1990), 2.5171 (1989), 2.2233 (1988), 1.5183 (1987), 1.3503 (1986), 1.3010 (1985)

Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

NOTE: The information regarding Egypt on this page is re-published from the 1991 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Egypt Economy 1991 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Egypt Economy 1991 should be addressed to the CIA.