In a press conference yesterday, Minister of Planning Hala El Said stated that there is a 50 percent chance that measures containing the Covid-19 crisis would last until September of this year. Since February, the Egyptian state developed three likely scenarios in regards to containing the virus: the first sees a 20 percent chance for it to be contained by June, the second scenario sees a 50 percent chance to end by September, and finally the third scenario sees a 30 percent chance that it will last until the end of December. The minister added in the press conference that it is expected that economic recovery will be slow in most sectors, with tourism being the most severely affected by the crisis. Though she highlighted that now is the “ideal time” to localize industry in light of the decline in imports and increase Egyptian exports. Egypt’s GDP growth stood at 5.6 percent during the first half of FY19/20, compared to 5.4 percent in 2018 in the same period. According to the International Monetary Fund, Egypt is the only country in the Middle East projected to grow by 2.0 percent this…
