NBK: Egypt continues to recover from 2016 foreign currency crisis

KUWAIT CITY - 17 July 2018: The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), a subsidiary of the National Bank of Kuwait Group, said the Egyptian economy continues to recover from the 2016 foreign currency crisis.

In a report published Tuesday, NBK-Egypt pointed out that Egypt resorted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to set up an overall economic reform program, noting that the IMF approved a 12-billion-dollar package to revive Egypt's struggling economy.

Egypt's growth rate is to remain robust at around 5 percent in the short and medium terms in both FY 2017/2018 and FY 2018/2019, the report added.

This improvement in Egypt's economic indicators was mainly driven by the "improved policy-setting, the more competitive currency, rising tourism, falling inflation and interest rates, and progress on reforms", in addition to growth in natural gas output, according to the report.

The average gross domestic product (GDP) recorded 5.2 percent on a year-on-year basis in the second half of 2017 (the first half of fiscal year 2017-2018), compared to 3.6 percent in the fiscal year 2016-2017, the report added.

It also expected an increase in the production of Egypt's Zohr natural gas offshore Mediterranean field to reach 2.7 billion cubic feet per day by the end of 2019, a matter that will add 2 percent to the level of GDP.

As for Egypt's export revenues, they upped by
14 percent on a year-on-year basis in the first four months of 2018, it said.

Regarding inbound tourism, the number of tourists increased by 54 percent on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2017, it added.

On June 11, Director-General of the International Labor Organization (ILO)'s Office in Cairo Peter Van Rooij and Managing Director of the National Bank of Kuwait - Egypt Yasser Ismail Hassan signed a memorandum of understanding to establish 100 home biogas units in Egypt's Minya governorate.

This falls within the framework of the ILO's Decent Jobs for Egypt's Young People (DJEP) project.

Under the agreement, the National Bank of Kuwait will support sustainable social and economic development of rural communities in Egypt via offering financial support for five startups to facilitate the construction and operation of 100 home-sized biogas units in villages of Minya.