Daily Alert Archives

Egypt: Will the Dam Burst?

[Economist-UK] In the Smart Village, a campuslike technology park on Cairo's western outskirts, construction cranes glint in the mirrored glass of office blocks bearing multinational logos. Beyond its perimeter stretch thousands of acres of new suburbs, complete with gated communities, golf courses and private schools. Lush fields now line the crowded, six-lane route from Cairo to Alexandria, many planted with drip-irrigated garden crops for lucrative European markets. But a glance down one of the alleyways of brick tenements where half of Cairo's people actually live may reveal a crowd of head-scarved housewives pushing and cursing in an early-morning queue for government-subsidized bread. The fact is that most of Egypt's 75m people struggle to get by. Since his appointment in 2004, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and his team of technocrats have enacted long-delayed economic reforms. The overall growth rate has risen from below 4% to above 7%. Exports have more than doubled, from $9 billion in 2003 to $24 billion last year. Sales of private cars have quadrupled since 2004. The rate of population growth has slowed, from 2.3% a year in the 1980s to 1.9% today. Bread is still widely available at a subsidized price equal to one American cent a loaf. And despite a recent hike in petrol prices, a liter still costs one-eighth of its average price in Europe.
2008-09-17 01:00:00
Full Article