Egypt was able to overcome challenges thanks to economic reform programmes, according to Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), Tarek Amer.
Amer elaborated that the monetary policy officials in African countries need to take bold and decisive decisions to confront the emerging and successive challenges, confront inflation and provide job opportunities.
This came during his speech at the 29th annual meeting of the African export-import bank (Afreximbank) held in the administrative capital in Egypt.
The Governor of the CBE added that the turmoil the world is currently witnessing puts difficulty on the shoulders of the monetary and financial authorities in African countries.
Amer stressed that the Egyptian banking sector continues to support the economy by providing the liquidity that all sectors need, pointing out that its role was not limited to that only, but rather supports the state in various aspects, and the evidence for this is the sector’s provision of about 250 martyrs during the Corona pandemic.
“Successive global events have burdened the economies of African countries, which are already suffering from many problems,” Amer stated.
He indicated that the whole world is following with great interest, especially the financial and monetary authorities and regional and international financial institutions, the successive events that caused strong shocks to most of the world’s economies.
The developing world and developed countries are currently suffering from serious problems and challenges in the rates of development and high inflation, according to Amer.
He added that the countries of the African continent mainly suffer from many internal problems and burdens, with the repercussions of external shocks, as the governments of African countries and the regional finance institution bore the burdens of directing a large part of their budget and financing programs to provide the necessary capabilities to purchase the vaccine against the Coronavirus.
Amer pointed out that due to the Coronavirus, the countries of the world tended to impose restrictions on travel and the movement of individuals, which burdened the economies of African countries, especially those that depend on imports from abroad or dependence on the resources of the tourism sector.
He added that with the rise in basic food commodities, as a result of the geopolitical turmoil that cast its shadow on the global economy in general, and on the economy of African countries in particular, as these turmoil led to a noticeable escalation in energy prices as well, as well as disruption of supply chains and high shipping costs.
