Egypt's Economic Predicament contains a succinct and lucid analysis of virtually all the major economic problems of Egypt: their origin, development and the prospect of solving them. It presents today's economic problems of Egypt in a wider historical context and shows their relationship to current social issues, including the growth of religious fanaticism.
The book also contains a powerful critique of the âStructural Adjustmentâ program of reform, which constitutes today's conventional wisdom.
The subtitle of the book describes it as âa study in the interaction of external pressure, political folly and social tensionâ, and as such it should be of interest not only to scholars and students of development in Egypt and the Middle East, but to those occupied with other Third World countries as well.
Galal A. Amin, Ph.D. (1964) in economics, University of London, is Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo. He has published extensively on economic, social and cultural developments in Egypt and the Arab world, including The Modernization of Poverty, (Brill, 1974).
'Overall, Amin offers careful articulation of the historical development of the external-debt problem in Egypt. His econimic analysis of the determinants of the debt is thorough...Amin has succeeded in painting a picture of Egypt's current social and economic reality to which the readers familiar with this reality can easily relate. Readers less familiar with Egypt's economy will find the book very informative in describing the current reality and its historical background.'
Magda Kandill, IJMES, 1996.
All those of undergraduate level and above interested in the Egyptian economy, Egyptian and Middle Eastern recent economic and political developments, and the implications of IMF and World Bank economic programs in the Third World.