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The economy of Egypt was a highly centralized planned economy focused on import substitution under President Gamal Abdel Nasser. In the 1990s, a series of International Monetary Fund arrangements, coupled with massive external debt relief resulting from Egypt's participation in the Gulf War coalition, helped Egypt improve its macroeconomic performance. Since 2000, the pace of structural reforms, including fiscal, monetary policies, taxation, privatization and new business legislations, helped Egypt move towards a more market-oriented economy and prompted increased foreign investment. The reforms and policies have strengthened macroeconomic annual growth results which averaged 8% annually between 2004 and 2009 but the government largely failed to equitably share the wealth and the benefits of growth have failed to trickle down to improve economic conditions for the broader population, especially with the growing problem of unemployment and underemployment. After the 2011 revolution Egypt's foreign exchange reserves fell from $36 billion in December 2010 to only $16.3 billion in January 2012, also in February 2012 Standard & Poor's rating agency lowered the Egypt's credit rating from B+ to B in the long term.〔S&P Downgrades Egypt's Credit Rating - http://english.nuqudy.com/General_Overview/North_Africa/SP_Downgrades_Egypt-883〕 In 2013, S&P lowered Egypt's long-term credit rating from B- to CCC+, and its short-term rating from B to C on worries about the country's ability to meet its financial targets and maintain social peace more than two years after President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in an uprising, ushering in a new era.〔Daragahi, Borzou. (2013-05-09) (S&P cuts Egypt's credit rating again amid fiscal health fears ). FT.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.〕 ==Macroeconomic trend== Egypt has a stable mixed economy enjoying average growth, averaging 3%–5% in the past quarter-century. The economy embarked on various stages of development during which the public and private sectors played roles varying in relative importance as follows: * The First Republic: 1952-2012, * * Import substitution and nationalization, 1952–1966, during which the first programme of industrialization in 1957 was established and led by the public sector in heavy industries such as iron and steel, chemical industries, and heavy machinery. Nationalization reduced the relative importance of the private sector. There was no stock trading to speak of, all banks and financial institutions were under the public sector, and foreign direct investment was almost banned. * *Inter-War, 1967–1973, adversely affected the performance of the economy and public sector role in import substitution. * *Openness Euphoria, 1974–1985 during which policies were introduced to encourage Arab and foreign investment through a series of incentives and liberalizing trade and payment; heavy emphasis was put on developing the tourism and textile manufacturing industry as drivers of growth, the economy expanded but this proved unsustainable and growth consequently scaled back. * *External Debt Crisis, 1985–1990, the external debt crisis and Paris Club re-scheduling and debt reduction. * *Economic Reform, 1991–2007, reform policies were introduced to meet the terms of international institutions, lenders and donors, including wider incentives to the role of the private sector in all economic activities. * *The Post Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2011, soaring food prices, especially for grains, led to calls for the government to provide more immediate assistance to the population of more than 40% in the "poverty tunnel" and to strike a "new deal" on agriculture policy and reform. Egypt faced the long term supply- and demand-side repercussions of the global financial crisis on the national economy. Egypt's gains from annual growth rates benefited the rich and failed to trickle down and reduce the poverty which increased to about 50% in 2011 leading to socioeconomic political instability and popular revolution on 25 January 2011. * The Second Republic: 2012–Present, Egypt needs to strengthen the economy to exogenous shocks, improve productivity, competition, get out of the "informality trap," invest in human capital via social protection from a human right-based approach to correct for market failures and build good trust in governance. The biggest questions for the new president-elect and new government are how to address corruption at the level of the bureaucracy, citizens and parties; how to address the expectations of the Egyptian people; how to bring people from different backgrounds and different voices to support social accountability during economic and political transition to an active developmental state. Egyptian economy is still suffering from a severe downturn following the 2011 revolution and the government faces numerous challenges as to how to restore growth, market and investor confidence. Political and institutional uncertainty, a perception of rising insecurity and sporadic unrest continue to negatively affect economic growth.〔(Egypt Overview ) worldbank.org, April 2013〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Economy of Egypt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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