This is a very dishonest article right from the first line.
“The International Monetary Fund is riding to Egypt’s rescue”. You can understand the viewpoint of the author immediately from this sentence. The IMF “rescues” struggling economies…by enslaving them to debt, seizing control of their economic policies, and forcing them prioritize repayment above all other state responsibilities. “Rescue” is apparently an alternate spelling for the word “conquer”.
But further dishonesty ensues…’Egypt’s economic problems stem from the collapse of the tourism industry and from over-valuing the Egyptian Pound’. Sure, tourism has plummeted, but this is certainly not the only factor in the shortage of foreign currency reserves. Egypt has remitted millions of dollars in payments to foreign energy companies over the last 3 years; money the companies claim Egypt owes them for using Egyptian oil and gas resources for domestic consumption instead of handing it over to them to sell on the international market for private profit.
And as for “over-valuing” the Pound…the government has been forced to repeatedly DE-value the currency, until finally acquiescing to the IMF demand to adopt a floating valuation; which gives Egypt’s creditors control of the Pound’s value.
The writer goes on to say that Sisi has “squandered” foreign aid “leaving less to be spent on vital basic infrastructure”…except that the IMF has obliged the government to cut public spending on such projects, and most infrastructure projects are now contracted out to foreign companies who have refused to carry on the work due to the depleted foreign currency reserves.
“Sisi’s government has also failed to keep promises on economic reform”…How? Every single demand of the IMF has been implemented except for the VAT. The writer claims that cuts on subsidies were “stopped”, but what he means is that cuts were imposed, but not just not deepened yet; as the IMF has called for even MORE cuts..
“The education system is atrocious: Sisi admitted in 2014 that the nation needed 30,000 new teachers, but didn’t allocate the money to recruit them”….because the IMF requires cuts in public spending, which includes de-funding education. This is in COMPLIANCE with IMF dictates.
This paragraph is informative:
“Egypt should invest in simple infrastructure such as roads, schools and water-supply systems; make it easier for small and medium-sized business to get bank loans; and break up the military-industrial monopolies in everything from washing machines to olive oil.”
This gives you an indication of what the international business community wants…privatization of education, of water, of transportation infrastructure, further penetration by multinational banks into the finance sector, and the relinquishing of army-owned enterprises to foreign investors. This last point is important.
The indication here is that the greed of the global owners of capital is coming into direct conflict with the greed of the Egyptian Army Incorporated. Rebels should take note of that, and devise strategies for fanning the flames of this rivalry, because the army will inevitably lose that competition.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-16/egypt-s-failing-economy-is-sisi-s-fault
External Context سياق خارجي
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-16/egypt-s-failing-economy-is-sisi-s-fault