Egypt's economic woes persist beyond monetary measures

As Egypt changes its monetary policy leader, the country’s economic woes persist at a time when the global economy is still struggling to recover, analysts tell Ahram Online, questioning whether the Central Bank has much room for manoeuvre.

Egypt is still struggling to boost its sources of foreign currency following the 2011 uprising that left the country in political upheaval and battered the economy amid slow global economic recovery.

As his term comes to an end next month, Hisham Ramez, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), has been subject to harsh criticism from businessmen and importers who claim that his policies fueled the foreign currency shortage, harming importers and hampering economic activity.

“The Central Bank of Egypt almost ran out of tools to deal with the current crisis," said Samer Atallah, economics professor at The American University in Cairo. “On the one hand, it cannot defend the domestic currency and deplete its foreign reserves; on the other, it cannot allow more decline in the pound and consequently a greater increase in domestic prices.”