Official Resources

No Data

Travel Restrictions

Flights to Egypt are suspended.
- This does not apply to:
- aircraft in state of emergency;
- the following flights with pre-authorization from the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority: humanitarian flights, medevac, repatriation flights, technical landings and United Nations flights.

Source : IATA Timatic

Economic Measures

Reopening of the economy. According to a Cabinet statement on April 30, 2020, the government has started to draw up plans to ‘coexist’ with COVID-19 in the long term, saying there is currently ‘no end in sight’ to the outbreak. Since the last week of April 2020, shopping malls and retail outlets have been allowed to open on weekends until 5 pm, while restaurant customers have been allowed to place takeaway orders in-store. After temporarily suspending most public services and court proceedings, Egypt has relaxed some restrictions in the first week of May, including resuming work at car licensing units at traffic departments, real estate registry offices, and some court services. Starting May 4, 2020, hotels have been allowed to operate at 25 percent capacity until June 2020 and at 50 percent capacity thereafter. Egypt’s Health Ministry has published a 3-stage plan for coronavirus management that contains required procedures in preparation for the gradual return of normal life in the country.

Key Policy Responses as of May 19, 2020

FISCAL

• The government has announced stimulus policies in the USD 6.13 billion package (EGP 100 billion, 1.8 percent of GDP) to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. Pensions have been increased by 14 percent. Expansion of the targeted cash transfer social programs, Takaful and Karama, are also being extended to reach more families. A targeted support initiative for irregular workers in most severely hit sectors has been announced, which will entail EGP 500 in monthly grants for 3 months. To support the healthcare sector, EGP 8 billion has been allocated, targeted at providing urgent and necessary medical supplies, and disbursing bonuses for medical staff working in quarantine hospitals and labs. To support medical professionals, including doctors working in university hospitals, a 75 percent allowance over the wages has been announced. Energy costs have been lowered for the entire industrial sector; real estate tax relief has been provided for industrial and tourism sectors; and subsidy pay-out for exporters has been stepped up, discount on fuel price has been announced for the aviation sector As part of the EGP 100 billion stimulus, EGP 50 billion has been announced for the tourism sector, which contributes close to 12 percent of Egypt’s GDP, 10 percent of employment, and almost 4 percent of GDP in terms of receipts, as of 2019. The moratorium on the tax law on agricultural land has been extended for 2 years. The stamp duty on transactions and tax on dividends have been reduced. Capital gains tax has been postponed until further notice.

MONETARY AND MACRO-FINANCIAL

• The central bank has reduced the policy rate by 300bps. The preferential interest rate on loans to tourism has been reduced from 10 to 5 percent, for SMEs, industry and housing for low-income and middle-class families, has been reduced from 10 percent to 8 percent. A government guarantee of EGP 3 billion on low-interest loans by the central bank has been announce for the tourism industry soft loans. The central bank has also approved an EGP 100 billion guarantee to cover lending at preferential rates to the manufacturing, agriculture and contracting loans. Loans with a two-year grace period will be made available to aviation sector firms. Support has been announced for small projects harmed by COVID-19, especially in the industrial and labor-intensive sectors, through the availability of short-term loans of up to a year, to secure the necessary liquidity for operational expenses until the crisis is over. The limit for electronic payments via mobile phones has been raised to EGP 30,000/day and EGP 100,000/month for individuals, and to EGP 40,000/day and EGP 200,000/per week for corporations. A new debt relief initiative for individuals at risk of default has also been announced, that will waive marginal interest on debt under EGP 1 million if customers make a 50 percent payment. Microlenders have been instructed to also consider delays on a case-by-case basis, of up to 50 percent of the value of monthly installments for struggling clients. The regulations issued last year requiring banks to obtain detailed information of borrowers have been relaxed. Suspension of credit score blacklists for irregular clients and waiver of court cases for defaulted customers have been announced. The central bank has also launched an EGP 20 billion stock-purchase program which it has not yet used. A temporary daily limit has been for deposits and cash withdrawals for individuals and companies.

EXCHANGE RATE AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

• Large capital outflows have resulted in a drawdown of reserves to avoid excessive exchange rate volatility from the severe turbulence in financial markets.

Civic Freedom Tracker

Source : ICNL