‘We cannot afford not to grow,’ he told an economic conference in Cairo, noting that the January numbers for several sectors including tourism show the economy returning to growth levels of 2007 and 2008.
Egypt’s growth rate slowed to 4.7 per cent in the 2008-09 fiscal year due to the global financial crisis, after it increased by more than 7 per cent annually over the previous two years. The economy was was hurt by the shrinking of several sectors including tourism, exports, Suez Canal traffic and expatriate revenues.
However, figures by the cabinet’s think tank showed improvements in the second half of last year. Suez Canal revenues increased by 6.6 per cent in December from the previous month, while tourism, a major foreign currency earner for Egypt, had bounced back to levels before the financial crisis. ‘Now everyone looks to what happens next. We should even look further ahead,’ Nazif said. ‘The economy built enough power within it to absorb the shock of the past two years.’
He said that Egypt has potential to become an energy hub as well as a gateway for other Arab markets. It has new opportunities in infrastructure, which was one of the main barriers growth during the two years before the crisis. Now, the government is working on improving infrastructure in several sectors such as transportation, energy and tourism.
Source: Africa World News