IMF refutes Sisi’s claims of revolution’s impact on Egypt's economic collapse

A report issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the size of economic losses incurred in Egypt in the aftermath of the January 25 2011 revolution, has presented figures that are much less than estimates presented by the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

According to the report, Egypt’s cumulative losses in the decade following the 2011 revolution were only about ten per cent compared to what would have been expected in the event that no major political events occurred in the country.

According to the Mada Masr website, the IMF has calculated “the impact of the Arab Spring on Egypt’s economy, based on a specially developed methodology for evaluating similar effects, by comparing economies affected by sudden shocks with several other similar economies that were not affected by those shocks.”

The IMF estimates concluded that the Egyptian economy would have grown had the revolution not occurred, from 9.28 points on the IMF’s scale in 2010 to approximately 9.38 points by 2020. However, the revolution has slowed the economic growth to 9.28 points, a difference of only 0.1 point.

The IMF estimates refute the statements repeatedly presented by Al-Sisi regarding the size of losses that Egypt suffered due to the outbreak of the January 25 revolution.

In October 2021 Al-Sisi claimed the losses reached $400 billion while in September 2022, he said the losses amounted to $450 billion.

READ: Egypt faces external debt reckoning after borrowing spree