e country in
Arabic) centered in the white band; similar to the flag of Yemen, which
has a plain white band; also similar to the flag of Syria, which has two
green stars, and to the flag of Iraq, which has three green stars (plus
an Arabic inscription) in a horizontal line centered in the white band

Economy Egypt

Economy - overview: Egypt improved its macroeconomic performance
throughout most of the last decade by following IMF advice on fiscal,
monetary, and structural reform policies. As a result, Cairo managed
to tame inflation, slash budget deficits, and attract more foreign
investment. In the past three years, however, the pace of reform has
slackened, and excessive spending on national infrastructure projects
has widened budget deficits again. Lower foreign exchange earnings since
1998 resulted in pressure on the Egyptian pound and periodic dollar
shortages. Monetary pressures have increased since 11 September 2001
because of declines in tourism, Suez canal tolls, and exports, and Cairo
has devalued the pound several times in the past year. The development
of a gas export market is a major bright spot for future growth prospects.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $258 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2.5% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $3,700 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 14% industry: 30% services:
56% (2001)

Population below poverty line: 22.9% (FY95/96 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 4.4%
highest 10%: 25% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index: 28.9 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.3% (2001)

Labor force: 20.6 million (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 29%, industry 22%, services 49%
(2000 est.)

Unemployment rate: 12% (2001 est.)

Budget: revenues: $21.5 billion expenditures: $26.2 billion, including
capital expenditures of $5.9 billion (2001)

Industries: textiles, food processing, tourism, chemicals, hydrocarbons,
construction, cement, metals

Industrial production growth rate: 1.8% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production: 69.592 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 77.1% hydro: 22.9%
other: 0% (2000) nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption: 64.721 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2000)

Agriculture - products: cotton, rice, corn, whe