Egypt Not Alone in Its Economic Problems

I’m Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Egypt is the biggest of the nations hit by recent protests in North Africa and the Middle East. One of the causes of this spreading wave of popular dissatisfaction is a lack of economic progress.Egypt is not a major oil exporter. Its economy is not big enough to affect world economic growth. But important pipelines cross Egypt. And Egypt controls the Suez Canal. About eight percent of world shipping passes through this link between Europe and Asia. That includes two million barrels of oil each day, mainly to Europe. Many experts say they expect the canal to remain open. Still, concerns about the Suez have pushed oil prices to their highest levels since two thousand eight. Fariborz Ghadar heads the Center for Global Business Studies at Penn State University. He says poverty in Egypt remains high — up to forty percent in some areas.Yet Egypt is not alone. Foreign investors worry about corruption, mismanagement and security problems across North Africa and the Middle East. Every year millions of young people enter the job market. Populations are young and growing fast. In Egypt, the economy grew about five percent last year — too little growth to create enough jobs. Fariborz Ghadar says the United States in a good year creates fewer than two million jobs. He says Europe and the US together generate three million jobs. Middle Eastern countries have to generate up to eight …
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