Egypt's Higher Ministerial Committee will hold its first meeting next Saturday under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Yousef Wali, with the aim of establishing new mechanisms to buck the recession prevailing in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US on Sept. 11, according to the daily Al Akhbar.
The committee will discuss four key proposals submitted by an expanded meeting held Wednesday in an attempt to revive the Egyptian economy. The meeting was led by Minister of Commerce Mustafa Al Rifae’i and attended by Abdel Mine’m Saudi, who heads the union of chambers of industry.
AFP on Friday quoted Egypt's official MENA news agency as saying that the government had warned of an economic slowdown due to a drop in tourism and shipping revenues since last month's terror attacks on the United States.
The government forecast "a drop in foreign currency holdings of $2.4 billion, following a decline in revenues, notably those in tourism,” the cabinet's secretary general Safwat Al Nahas said, quoted by MENA.
He forecast tourism revenues would hit only $3.2 billion in 2001, down from a record $4.3 billion last year.
Transport revenues will drop by $433 million in the air and maritime sectors, he said, adding that the Suez Canal alone would lose $184 million.
The cabinet met to examine the economic fallout of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, which destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and rocked the Pentagon outside Washington.
Nahas said the cabinet was weighing solutions, including granting interest-free loans of $24 million a month to tourism companies in the next five months.
Egypt has already been mired in an economic recession for more than two years. In August, the government devalued the Egyptian pound against the dollar for the second time in six months – Albawaba.com
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