Egypt’s ranking stable in Africa Competitiveness Report

CAIRO – 16 May 2017: Egypt retained its ranking in the 2017 Africa Competitiveness Report, placed at 115th out of 138 countries.

The report said that Egypt should capitalize on its large market size, which by some accounts appears more sophisticated than those of neighboring countries (85th), and its geographical proximity to the large European market to create growth and employment.

In order to achieve this, the report said that Egypt needs to step up its reform efforts and address the major rigidities that plague its goods, labor, and financial markets, on which the country ranks 112th, 135th, and 111th, respectively.

“Other priorities include higher education and training (112th), which is below the performance of peer economies, particularly in terms of quality (134th); as well as the overall security situation (133rd), which remains fragile and imposes significant cost for business,” the report said.

The most problematic factors for doing business in Egypt, according to the report, are policy instability, government instability, access to financing, foreign currency regulations and corruption, among others.

The Africa Competitiveness Report was first published in 1998 and has, since 2007, been a biennial project highlighting areas that require policy action and investment to ensure Africa’s sustained growth.