CAIRO - Egypt's uprising has cost its tourism, construction and manufacturing industries at least 10 billion Egyptian pounds, a government statistics authority said on Thursday. Egypt's economy is struggling to get back on track with public sector workers in many sectors around the country striking over pay, conditions and corruption. Banks, which have been open for only six working days since January 27, are due to reopen again on Sunday after strikes closed them for four days this week, while the stock exchange has yet to reopen at all. "Total losses in manufacturing, construction and tourism as a result of the recent events reached more than 10 billion Egyptian pounds," the CAPMAS agency said in a statement carried on state news agency MENA. This includes hotel cancellations and a decline in salaries in the tourism sector in February, it said. Manufacturing lost 3.7 billion pounds between January 28 and February 5, with production in the key industrial zones falling by 60 percent. The construction sector lost 762 million pounds, MENA said. With its pharaonic antiquities and year-round warm beaches, Egypt earned nearly $11 billion from tourism in 2009, according to the ministry, accounting for over a tenth of gross domestic product. But the upheaval prompted many countries to issue warnings against travel in Egypt. Sites such as the Giza Pyramids, usually overrun with sunburned visitors, stood ominously empty. The government said before Mubarak's resignation on February 12 that about 1 million tourists fled Egypt, costing it some $1 billion.
