The roots of economic challenges facing Egypt in the aftermath of the 25th revolution

Abstract

Since the 25th of January, 2011 revolution the Egyptian economy has been suffering on all fronts. Almost all the economic indicators have been pointing towards a deteriorating situation, that in many cases have reached the trough. Yet, the economy is still surviving, even if all indicators have been pointing towards a near collapse. This is mainly due to the unprecedented support of some of Arab Gulf countries, whom their unconditional support has helped to mitigate the deteriorating economic conditions. The economic challenges facing in Egypt have exacerbated after the 25th of January revolution mainly because of the deteriorating political and security conditions which have interrupted the functioning of the economy. Yet, this is not to say that revolution has caused such challenges. In fact the challenges that the Egyptian economy has been facing have deep roots in the socio-political-economic context, which this paper aims at explaining. The revolution and its aftermath have brought to the forefront such challenges which have been always mitigated by short term solutions that never dealt seriously with the roots. In addition, the revolution has brought additional problems associated with the macroeconomic imbalances. As a result, the challenges became more complex especially in light of the need to balance the social and economic aspects. The paper proceeds as follows; in section one we pinpoint the main challenges faced by Egypt where we identify the symptoms and causes of such challenges. In section two we discuss the roots of such challenges. Finally, we conclude and provide our understanding of how is it expected that Egypt will face its challenges in the near futurepeer-reviewe