Egypt has two missions ahead: The first is to conclude her political transformation by building a democratic structure on a strong foundation of legitimacy, through parliamentary elections for political parties to represent the nation.
The other goal is to end the acute economic crisis that has enveloped us as a natural byproduct of the revolutionary conditions we have experienced over the last year. In fact, the economy—not only the nation—had to go through 23 “million-strong” marches.
The two missions must be accomplished in order to justify the sacrifices of the martyrs and move Egypt forward. But while the political track to hand over power to a president elected by the people after Shura Council elections and writing a constitution is clear, the economic track is more obscure and has less accord. While there has been much debate about political and constitutional issues, little has been said about how we can salvage the economy from disaster and chronic stagnation.
Some of us want us to regress back to the 1960s, while others believe that reforming the market economy is possible in order to achieve justice alongside development. But neither are policies that will jumpstart the economy from its current paralysis.
This requires two conditions: first, political parties that won the elections, since they have a mandate to lead the country in the coming phase, should agree to call for suspending all strikes, sit-ins, marches, and million-strong protests, as long as the interim phase is proceeding on course.
Second, economic policies should all focus on encouraging the “expansion” not “contraction” of the market. For example, I could not comprehend why interest rates were raised on bank deposits, since this means that the money will remain in banks rather than be used for investment. Meanwhile, interest rates on loans for public or private investment sectors were also raised, making it impossible to invest them at home or compete abroad.
Such measures encourage the ongoing relapse and add more retreat even if the value of the Egyptian pound remains the same. In fact, there is no economic advantage to this if in the end it does not encourage tourism or investments.
To be honest, maintaining the value of the Egyptian pound is not a goal in itself but actually a tool of economic policy to end the current inertia.
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