January - Moody's downgraded Egypt's government bond ratings to Ba2 from Ba1 and changed the outlook from stable to negative. - Fitch ratings revised its outlook for Egypt to be negative. - Samir Radwan was appointed by Hosni Mubarak as minister of finance. February - Gouda Abdel-Khalek, an opposition party leader was appointed minister of social solidarity. - Fitch ratings lowered Egypt's debt ratings by one notch to BB from BB+. - S&P cut Egypt's long-term foreign and local currency ratings by one notch to BB and BB+ respectively both with a negative outlook. March - The Egyptian pound reached LE5.91 against the pound in foreign currency exchange companies. - Egypt's stock market witnessed the first day of transactions after 55 days of closure. It was a red dominated session but with better than expected losses. April - Egypt's foreign direct investment fell 124 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, ending in March due to the instability following the toppling of Mubarak's regime. According to CBE figures FDI's registered a net outflow of $163.6 million during that period compared to net inflows of $656 million in the last quarter of 2010 and $1.7 billion in the same quarter of 2010. May - Egypt and Jordan agreed to adjust the price of Egyptian gas under a 2004 agreement. Jordan imports about three million cubic metres of natural gas a year. - A diesel shortage in Egypt's governorates crippled activities of many vital sectors. The diesel fuel crisis is an annual recurring problem because of the increase of local consumption due to the agricultural harvest season. June - Egypt decided to refrain from borrowing some $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund. July - The ruling military council approved the government's revised draft budget for fiscal year 2011/2012. At LE515 billion the budget is the largest yet in Egypt's history. The final budget deficit is around LE135 billion down from a previous proposal of LE170 billion. - A minimum wage of LE700 went into effect with government employees as the beneficiaries. - In a cabinet shuffle, Hazem El-Biblawi became the new finance minister and deputy prime minister replacing the outgoing minister Samir Radwan. - Mahmoud Eissa was appointed minister of industry and foreign trade, replacing Samir El-Sayyad. August - The European Union decided to lift the ban imposed on some Egyptian fresh vegetables including green beans and peas. - The steel industry was in shock following a court verdict withdrawing manufacturing licenses awarded to five companies without public bids. September - The Administrative Court announced that the privatisation contracts of three companies are illegal. The verdict came soon after a court ruling returned Omar Effendi to the public sector. October - Shortage of supply of gasoline 80 continued and officials blamed thugs who take advantage of unstable security situations and smuggle gasoline to the Palestinian territory and Libya. - S& P cut Egypt's long term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to BB and its long term local currency rating was cut to BB- from BB+. It maintained a negative outlook on the rating. - Moody's downgraded Egypt's government bond ratings by one notch to B1 from Ba3. the outlook remained negative. November - Following new clashes in Tahrir Square stock market indices went into free fall. Case 30 index, the main tracker of the Egyptian stocks declined to its lowest level in 32 months. - Kamal El-Ganzouri former prime minister under the regime of the ousted president Mubarak headed a new national salvation government - The value of the Egyptian pound dropped, following a week of unrest to be traded at LE6.05 to the dollar, its lowest value since 2004. --The unemployment rate according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and statistics rose from 8.9 per cent during the third quarter of 2010 to 11.9 during the same period in 2011. December - Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri decided to implement a maximum wage of 35 times the minimum income of employees at the third degree. - The Central Bank of Egypt announced that the country's foreign reserves had fallen down from $36 billion in January 2011 to $20.1 billion
