Total foreign investment in Egypt fell to LE2.6 billion in the first half of the 2009/10 fiscal year from LE4 billion in the same period the previous year--representing a 34.8-percent decrease--according to a report issued Sunday by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). The CBE report also noted that investment in Egypt's energy sector for the period amounted to no more than LE1.9 billion. Remittances from Egyptian expatriates living abroad, the report went on to note, had fallen from US$4.1 billion to US$3.5 billion over the course of the last year as a result of the global financial crisis. Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana, meanwhile, announced that losses sustained by Egypt's tourism sector during the same period had reached LE1.2 billion, with the overall number of tourist arrivals falling by 2.3 percent from the year before. On the sidelines of an international tourism conference in Milan, Italy on Saturday, Garana said that tourist arrivals from Italy alone had declined by 2.3 percent, which had contributed to a 9.7-percent decrease in Egypt's overall tourism-nights index. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
