Egypt and the global financial crisis

Egypt and the global financial crisis

and the global financial crisisen

The origins of the global financial crisis could be traced back to August 2007, when people with mortgage debts, in the US, could not make their payments. Consequently, banks faulted on their payments to investment institutions, to which those debts were sold.

Major US banks such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch and insurance companies such as The American Insurance Group have suffered.

With the teeth of the global financial squeeze sinking deep, Egypt had to adopt urgent measures to head off the crisis. President Hosni Mubarak held a number of meetings at which he discussed the measures to be adopted and the effects on Egypt's financial sector to be expected.

On their part, cabinet officials said that Egypt's banking system is capable of absorbing the crisis. The only sector likely to be affected, however, is the stock exchange.

Egyptian banks are no longer burdened with bad debts. The debt problem has been solved over the past 4 years. 50 per cent of those debts were repaid. The remainder is rescheduled.

Moreover, mortgage lending accounts for no more than 3 per cent of the credit lines offered by Egyptian banks.