Egypt's Military

Egypt reduced public sector expenditures under the IMF agreement and curtailed overall spending on subsidies to increase revenue. The introduction of value added tax was particularly hard on the poor who were already suffering due to inflation. After the 2016 devaluation, Egypt's economic growth accelerated from 2017 through 2019, but slowed when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. $5 billion of capital fled Egypt between September and December of 2021. Wealthy Egyptians took advantage of the unnaturally strong currency and moved their money abroad too.