As Egypt gears up to the Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC) to be held in the coastal resort of Sharm al-Sheikh from 13 – 15 March, Egyptians have been holding high hopes that this conference would work to attract the foreign investment needed to get the economy up from the beating it took in the wake of the Arab Spring uprising in January 2011. Back then Egypt had a pre-Arab Spring growth rate close to an annual 7 per cent and had foreign currency reserves of some USD36 billion. Today, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) figures place the reserves at USD15.4 billion and, according to Head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics Abu-Bakr al-Guindi the growth rate has risen to 2.2 per cent after its all-time low of 0.4 per cent after the Arab Spring in 2011
