Hazem al-Beblawi, who was appointed on Tuesday to form a new government in Egypt, is a liberal economist. His appointment as interim prime minister has generally been well received, as he sets about steering Egypt through an increasingly tense period. The new prime minister faces pressing challenges in the economy, as well as a stand-off with supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy's former regime. Beblawi, 76, studied in Cairo before moving to Grenoble in France and then to Paris, where he earned his PhD in economics. He worked for a number of private and public organizations in Egypt and abroad. He was director of the Export Development Bank of Egypt from 1983 to 1995 before joining the Economic and Social Committee of the United Nations Commission for Western Asia, which includes many Arab countries. From 2001 to 2011 he was an adviser to the Arab Monetary Fund in Abu Dhabi. He was deputy prime minister and finance minister in 2011 during the transitional period that followed the fall of President Hosni Mubarak and the army taking over. In October of the same year, he resigned in protest at the killing of Coptic protesters during clashes with the army outside the state broadcasting house - in what became known as the Maspero Massacre - but the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) rejected his resignation. In December, he left the cabinet in a reshuffle. Beblawi has lectured in universities in Egypt and across the world, writing several books on economics in Arabic, French and English.
