The Egyptian economy is “one of the best in the Middle East,” Abdullah Rashid al-Mara, the Corporations and Investment Funds Director at Qatar Central Bank (QCB), on the side lines of the Qatari participation in the “Arab Banking Conference” in Cairo, April 27-28.
He added that Egypt did not ask for any new deposits from Qatar and the latter participated with only $5 billion as deposits, since January 25 Revolution, reported by Youm7.
During the one-year rule of former President Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian government borrowed over $7 billion from Qatar. The latter decided to amend the agreement signed with Egypt, an action which was inconvenient to Egypt and resulted in the repayment of the money.
Since Morsi’s ouster, Egypt has been paying back the debt. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) transferred $ 500 million to Qatar Nov. 1 2013 as a first installment, a second payment of $500 million was returned in December 2013 and the last payment will be returned in October 2015, according to CBE Governor Hisham Ramez.
Gulf countries promised a total of $12.5 billion in aid and investments to Cairo on the first day of the three-day Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC) held in Sharm el-Sheikh March 13-15, to help bolster Egypt’s foreign currency reserves after it pays back the deposits to Qatar.
Qatar was included among the Arab nations participating in the EEDC, which hosted delegations from approximately 100 countries and 25 international and regional organizations.
Qatar’s participation in the EEDC was represented in the attendance of its Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry.
Turkey, Iran and Israel were not invited to the conference since they did not meet “agreed criteria,” which includes the size of investment in Egypt and the membership of the participants in international economic organizations including the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
