Finance Minister and Central Banker of the Year: The regional winners
Appointed economics minister in July, Youssef Boutros-Ghali may be new to his job but he is not new to Egyptian economic reform. Minister of state for economic affairs from January 1996 and economic adviser to the prime minister and the central bank governor from the late 1980s, Boutros-Ghali has long played a key role in reforming the Egyptian economy.
He has accelerated the privatization programme begun in 1996, opened up the Egyptian market, and promoted the country to international investors with enthusiasm. "I try to be very frank, very direct," he says. "We are a developing country. I never forget that. We are a country aware of its problems and willing to change them. It is a message people tend to accept."
Egypt has fared well in its economic reform programme since the Gulf War. The initial focus was on stabilizing the economy; structural reforms did not reach the top of the agenda until 1996. The rate of inflation has dropped from 14.7% in 1991 to 5.4% in 1996; real GDP growth increased from 1.1% in 1991 to 5.1%