Economy

Imports
$95.7 billion (2022). Refined Petroleum ($6.33B), Wheat ($4.82B), Crude Petroleum ($3.87B), Petroleum Gas ($2.39B), and Packaged Medicaments ($2.27B), importing mostly from China ($16.7B), United States ($6.61B), Saudi Arabia ($6.44B), United Arab Emirates ($5.53B), and Turkey ($4.71B).

In 2022, Egypt was the world’s biggest importer of Wheat ($4.82B) and Bitumen and asphalt ($206M)

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 26.1% have an account with a financial institution
• 2.8% have a credit card
• 2.9% have a mobile money account
• 3.5% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is medium (rated 60.1 out of 100). Ranked 12th out of 20 Middle Eastern and North African countries. Ranked 114th worldwide out of 190 countries (2020, World Bank)

Exports
$53.9 billion (2022). Petroleum Gas ($9.53B), Nitrogenous Fertilizers ($3.37B), Refined Petroleum ($2.88B), Crude Petroleum ($2.85B), and Gold ($1.73B), exporting mostly to Turkey ($4.23B), Italy ($3.32B), United States ($3.21B), Spain ($3B), and India ($2.57B).

Main local online stores
souq.com, olx.com.eg and jumia.com.eg. Other top retail sites include mawdoo3.com and amazon.com

Economic freedom
‘Mostly not free’ (rated 49.7 out of 100) Ranked 10th out of 14 countries in the Middle Eastern and North African countries. Ranked 146th worldwide out of 184 countries (2023, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 15th out of 39 Northern African and Western Asian countries. Ranked 86th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Media

Media language Arabic, English

Information channels
Egypt is a major regional media player. Its press is one of the most influential and widely-read in the region and its TV and film industry supplies much of the Arab-speaking world with shows from its Media Production City. The state is a major force in the media and runs many TV and radio stations, websites, newspapers and magazines. 

In recent years, the authorities have been increasing controls over traditional and social media to an unprecedented degree. Many of the popular TV talk shows that once featured heated political debates have disappeared. The charge of spreading “false news” is widely used as a pretext to clamp down on online activists.

Reporters Without Borders says Egypt is “one of the world’s biggest prisons” for journalists. 

“The authorities have waged a witch-hunt since 2013 against journalists suspected of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood,” the group says.

Television is the most popular medium. There are two state-run national TVs and six regional channels. Many private networks emerged in the post-Mubarak era. Egypt is a big force in satellite TV. Most leading Arab pay TV networks have a presence at Media Production City in Cairo. Egypt was the first Arab nation to have its own satellite, Nilesat.

A 2018 cyber-crime law allows the authorities to block any website deemed to threaten national security or the economy.

The press

Al-Ahram– state-owned daily, the oldest newspaper in the Arab world
Al-Ahram Weekly– in English
Youm7 – private daily
Al-Misri al-Yawm– private daily
Al-Shuruq – private daily
Al-Watan – private daily
Egypt Independent – in English, sister paper of Al-Misri al-Yawm
Daily News Egypt – private, in English

Television

National Media Authority (NMA) – state-run, operates domestic and satellite networks, including Nile News, Nile TV International and Nile TV thematic channels
Dream TV – private, via satellite
Mehwar TV – private, via satellite
Al-Nahar – private, via satellite
ONtv – private, via satellite
Al-Hayah – private, via satellite
CBC – private, via satellite

Radio

National Media Authority (NMA) – state-run, operates national, regional and external services including flagship General Programme
Nile FM – private, Western pop
Nogoum FM – private, Arabic pop

News agency

Middle East News Agency (MENA) – state-run
Masrawy – news portal
Mada Masr – news, in English
Egyptian Streets – news, in English

Internet Data

Internet users
72.2% penetration, 82.01 million

Share of web traffic by device
66.48% mobile phones, 31.43% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.08% tablet devices, others 0.01%

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
22.11 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
64.53 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 97.3%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 90.7%

Most popular web search engines
Google (97.75%), Bing (1.55%), Yahoo! (0.3%), Petal Search (0.17%), Yandex Ru (0.16%), other (0.08%).

Most used social media
Facebook (80.1%), Instagram (7.23%), YouTube (6.23%), Twitter (4.76%), Pinterest (1.03%), LinkedIn (0.48%), reddit (0.13%), other (0.05%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
70 yrs (2022)

Gender
Generally, women do not have the same status as men. It is apparent in dress, level of education, work opportunities, freedom of movement etc. especially in Upper Egypt (South), villages and certain very conservative circles. In Cairo, however, women are regarded with a more open- minded attitude. However, it is considered dangerous for women to go out alone in the evening and at night and they are encouraged to stay home. Among the younger generation, women often stop working when they get married.

Women do participate in the work force, especially in large cities such as Cairo, Alexandria and Port-Said etc. but they are often in subordinate positions, underpaid and sometimes exploited. As jobs are not readily available, even scarce in some domains, women are encouraged to stay home to look after the family. But at home, the woman is the queen of the family! She takes decisions concerning most matters related to children education, home management, food, clothes etc. She is a very important person in the family structure, if not the most important one.

Religion
Religion matters hugely and non-Muslim people are at a disadvantage. Although Christians make up to 10% of the population and have always been part of Egyptian society since the 1^st Century, they are not given the same opportunities for advancement at work. However, recently, that issue is being addressed openly and there seems to be a slight, but very slow, change in attitude.

Corruption perceptions Index
Egypt scored 30 out of 100, ranked 130th out of 180 countries worldwide.

Current health expenditure
4.61% of GDP

CO2 emissions
2.0 metric tons per capita

World Happiness Index
Egypt ranked 129th out of 146 countries, with a score of 4.288.

Cultural Curiosities
Communication in both business and social settings tends to be very warm and expressive. Establishing a cordial relationship and gaining the trust of your business counterpart is very important. 

Class
money, who you know and relations with people in important positions matter. They can make your life easier or harder. The middle class in Egypt has been shrinking due to shortage of work, emigration and economic circumstances. The poorer class is growing and there is a small but powerful percentage of extremely rich people. The gap between classes is visible. This situation is contributing to a more precarious situation regarding levels of petty crime and bursts of anger against the establishment. When you add to this picture the mounting conservative attitude of Islamists and their attitude towards Copts, Christians in general, you have the seeds of a growing social instability. 

In the Workplace, generally speaking, this brings the dimensions of favouritism of certain social and religious groups, resentment and distrust of leadership. Often, foreigners are sometimes looked upon as intruders, hence the importance of establishing one’s expertise, creating relationships, trust and team spirit.

As you probably will work in a relatively educated informed environment, such aspects will not be as apparent. However, be mindful as they might still be there, though unspoken.

Ethnicity
There are many ethnic groups in Egypt due to the multiple waves of invasions throughout history. However, for the longest time Egyptians saw themselves as part of the greater Arab Nation, especially, with the nationalistic feeling that developed in the fifties after the Revolution and Nasser’s dream to create a pan-Arab nation.  Egyptians relished the sense of belonging to a national popular project of building a democracy, following the demise of the royal family and the abolition of monarchy. Their ethnicity, as they saw it then, was first and foremost being Arab and mainly Muslim.

Lately, there is a stronger sense of belonging to a history and to a culture that is specifically and uniquely Egyptian. The separation of state and religion is sometimes a grey area – the constitution identifies Islam as the state religion, while also guaranteeing freedom of religion. Many very conservative Muslims believe that Christians in Egypt are not Egyptians. They talk about Ethnic cleansing and that the country should be solely and totally Muslim. 

There are obvious and apparent differences between ethnic groups. In the deep Southern part of Upper Egypt, people are darker as part of Northern Sudan was once part of the Egyptian territory. In the North and in specific areas where many of the invading armies of modern History such as the French and English armies settled, many people have fairer skin and blue eyes.

Moreover, in the first half of the twentieth Century, Egypt was seen as a land of opportunity and wealth by surrounding countries and many Lebanese, Greek, Italian and Armenian people emigrated to the country. For example, Alexandria, the biggest port city in Egypt had the largest Greek Community outside Greece. They all adopted the ways of life and the language of the land. They also enriched it with their traditions, art and knowledge, founding schools and bringing their structured mentality to many aspects of government.