The Egyptian pound is the official currency for the Arab Republic of Egypt. The pound is divided into 100 piasters, or 1000 milliemes. The ISO code for the Egyptian pound is EGP, although LE is also frequently used as notation. The Egyptian government fixed the exchange rate through force, which led to the use of a de facto gold standard. As far as the global community knows, gold is still often used in internal transactions. Egyptian banknotes were issued for the first time in 1899.
Sovereign Ratings for Egypt
| Moody's Rating |
| Ba1 |
| S&P Rating |
| BB+ |
|
Sovereign credit ratings play an important part in determining a country's access to international capital markets, and the terms of that access. Sovereign ratings help to foster dramatic growth, stability, and efficiency of international and domestic markets. |
What does it look like?
Political Structure
Egypt's government is a republic, consisting of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The president (chief of state) and the prime minister lead the executive branch. To help these two figures, the president, who is elected for six-year terms, appoints a cabinet. The legislative branch consists of two parts: the People's Assembly (454 seats), and the Advisory Council (264 seats). The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Opposition parties were only granted legality in 1977, and their existence is closely watched. The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest opposition party in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is the presidents' most significant opposing party.
Prominent Figures
The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981. The prime minister is Atef Mohammad Abeid, who has been in power since 1999. Egypt has many different political parties, each of which must be approved by the government; most well known parties include the Liberal Party and the Nasserist Arab Democratic Party. The Chairman, Dr. Farouk Abd El Baky El Okdah, heads the Central Bank of Egypt.
Unique Characteristics
Of all of the countries in the Arab world, Egypt has the largest population, and after Saudi Arabia, the largest economy. Egypt's rapidly growing population has begun to stress the natural resources and limited land that they own. Tourism has often played a large role in Egypt's economy, although the 9/11 attacks and militant Islamic force have caused a major decline in recent years. The Suez Canal, especially, has been affected by declines in tourism.
Egypt's economy has been strengthened by global aid. Egypt is the largest recipient of funds from the US for economic reforms and investment in communications and physical infrastructure. Revenues from tourism and Egypt's stock market have helped to allay many of their financial and economic burdens.
Key Economic Factors
Since 2003, Egypt has had a large trade deficit. Egypt is a huge exporter of oil; their merchandise exports totaled to US $9 billion in 2003. The increases in services surplus lead to the account surplus to widen from 5.2% of the GDP in 2003, from 1.1% in 2002. Petroleum and natural gas accounted for 8% of the GDP in 2003.
Agriculture has always played a large role in Egypt's economy; however its contribution towards the GDP has been on the decline. Agriculture accounted for 16.4% of the GDP in 2003. The manufacturing sector has also been very important for Egypt's economy. Manufacturing accounted for 19.7% of the GDP in 2003. Cairo and the Nile Delta employ large industry and mining sectors.
Egypt's GDP consists mainly of consumption expenditures. In 2001, consumption accounted for 18% of the GDP. Egypt's economy depends mainly upon agriculture, media, petroleum, natural gas, and tourism.
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