Egypt Economy to Slow in Q2 of 2012

Egypt’s economic growth will slow to fewer than 2 % this year from 2.5 per cent last year because of political turmoil, the country’s central bank governor said on Sunday.

“We have a revolution,” Farouk el-Okdah told Reuters when asked why growth would slow. He did not elaborate.

Okdah was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of officials from the Arab Monetary Fund and central banks in the region.

In April, the International Monetary Fund forecast Egypt’s gross domestic product growth would slow to 1.5 percent in 2012 from the 1.8 percent which it estimated for 2011. Political uncertainty since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 has stifled investment and hurt trade.