Shadi Hamid, Brookings Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Doha Center, suggests that the sour outlook on the economic fallout from Egypt is completely warranted--and there's only one thing that will make it better.
In Forbes, he writes:
Up until recently, Egypt was hailed as a success story by international financial institutions. In 2008, the World Bank's Doing Business report named Egypt the world's top reformer. The technocratic government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif oversaw annual GDP growth of 5% to 7%. By shutting out any opposition, the Egyptian regime promised political stability and delivered impressive growth. Uncertainty is the enemy of markets, and the Arab authoritarian order seemed, if nothing else, to offer a certain reliability. The past few days, that certainty has proven illusory. Egypt will not go back to what it was. In the coming weeks, the country's economic situation will deteriorate further. On Thursday, the main index of the Egyptian stock market dropped 10.5%. Meanwhile, tourists are fleeing Egypt, and they're not likely to come back anytime soon.
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