The Bankruptcy Law relaxes restrictions on businesses and individuals facing bankruptcy, thus alleviating an important hurdle to enterprise creation.

In light of the government’s economic reform program, the Industrial Licensing Law furthers efforts to liberalize the economy. The law reduces the amount of time required for businesses to become recognized entities by the government.

The VAT Law is expected to streamline tax collection, broaden the tax base, and formalize the informal economy, bringing additional revenue to the government. The VAT Law replaced the previous sales tax scheme with one designed to make revenue collection easier and tax evasion more difficult.

The Investment Law aims to attract foreign investors to Egypt to revitalize the Egyptian economy. The financial rebates and tax breaks for factories included in the law are meant to provide significant incentives for companies to begin operations in Egypt.

In July, the IMF released its third review of the economic reform program, which, very much like the previous two reviews, was full of praise of the Egyptian authorities for the strong implementation of the economic reform program.

Nonresident Fellows Osama Diab, Timothy Kaldas, and Mohamed El Dahshan discuss the price hikes for the Cairo Metro, electricity, water, and fuel, their connection to the IMF loan, and their effects on Egyptians.

Efforts to control inflation and the budget deficit have led Egypt’s external debt to approach $90 billion—and could ultimately expose the country to risking default.

A television commercial showed beautiful young people walking out on their daily jobs, launching a homemade jam company, a food truck, or a designer furniture store. A voiceover promised that