A Legitimate Concern!

If poverty rates in Egypt approach 30%, meaning that a third or slightly more of the society lives below the poverty line according to the government's own admission, should the government feel guilty about how things have turned out, or should it be concerned about the present and future of the country?

Feeling guilty is certainly healthy because it clearly means acknowledging failure in carrying out the assigned task, but it is not enough to safely overcome the current crisis without feeling concern, which should serve as a motivation to change the course and policies that have led us to this difficult situation, and then begin the real treatment of the root causes of the economic problems Egypt is currently facing.

Poverty rates in Egypt are not the only legitimate and necessary source of concern, but also the level of debt, both external and internal.

According to official government statistics, Egypt's external debt increased by about 6 billion dollars since the beginning of 2025 to reach 161.2 billion dollars at the end of the second quarter, after reaching 155.1 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, domestic debt rose by 3.5% by the end of June 2025 to reach 11.057 trillion Egyptian pounds, compared to 10.685 trillion pounds during the first quarter of the same year.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said during a press conference last Wednesday that the government has taken several steps to reduce poverty rates in Egypt, adding: "We went through a difficult exceptional period and everyone now sees improvement, and we want the citizen to feel it more, so we are working on raising wages and stabilizing and lowering prices of goods," pointing out that external debt is still within safe limits, stressing that "new loans are allocated only to meet the state's basic needs such as petroleum and food products, and the government follows a strategic financial mechanism in managing external debt by replacing due debts with others with longer terms and better conditions, without increasing the total debt."

There is no doubt that the government is making great efforts to address the difficult and complex economic conditions, but this requires new policies and a different path from what was adopted in past years, which led us to this current predicament. Therefore, it must quickly move towards serious and decisive treatment of the complexities of the economic file filled with problems, and work to protect the poor and middle classes in society, who have paid a heavy price in recent years due to harsh economic reform measures, and to curb the successive increases in prices of all goods and services, which have drained wide segments of citizens to the point that they can no longer afford daily living expenses.

Among the government's priorities should be reducing the activity of building cities, apartments, and mega projects such as roads and high-speed trains, and directing all energies and support to operating idle factories, providing full opportunities for the private sector to contribute to development and help create jobs for millions of unemployed Egyptians, as well as increasing export rates abroad and raising the country's foreign currency reserves, so that we stop borrowing from abroad to repay debts.

We know well that there are many indicators pointing to an improvement in the performance of the Egyptian economy, as a survey conducted by Bloomberg agency predicted Egyptian economic growth at 4.4% in 2025, with growth accelerating to 4.7% in 2026. Many international reports also indicated optimism about improving Egypt's dollar revenues from tourism, exports, and remittances from Egyptians abroad, in addition to the Suez Canal recovering a large part of its lost revenues due to tensions in the Red Sea over the past two years.

However, all these economic indicators, reports, and international testimonies will not be sufficient unless citizens feel a real change in the difficult reality they have been living in for many years, and that this positively reflects on their standard of living, purchasing power, and ability to meet their basic needs and life requirements. Here, the responsibility certainly lies with the government, which must work to achieve a real economic reform, not a superficial one, that addresses the roots of the crisis and lifts a third of society from below the "poverty threshold."