Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)
Borders Israel, Sudan, and Libya.
Political System:
• President Hosni Mubarak, age 80; rules without term limits; in power since October 14, 1981; prevailed in the last election in September 2005, with 88.6% of vote; next election scheduled for 2011.
• Religious parties are officially outlawed, but the Muslim Brotherhood, openly religious, campaigns on slogans such as “Islam is the solution.” Independents affiliated with it control 88 seats out of a total 454 seats in Parliament.
• Universal and compulsory voting at age 18.
Demographics
80 million person population
1.71% population growth
71.6 year life expectancy
94% Muslim (predominantly Sunni), 6% Coptic Christian
24.2 years old, median age
Economy by the Numbers
• Economic Indicators
o $431.9 billion GDP (PPP)
o $5,400 GDP per capita
o 7% GDP growth (2007)
o 14.7% GDP from the agricultural sector (2006)
o 35.5% GDP from the industrial sector (2006)
o 49.8 % GDP from the services sector (2006)
o 10.1 % unemployment (2007)
o 8.8% inflation (2007)
o 13.8 % industrial production growth rate (2007)
o 105.1% public debt in terms of GDP
• Trade
o 12.1% exports to Italy, Egypt’s number one export partner (2007)
o 11.4% imports from America, Egypt’s number one import partner (2007)
o $27.42 billion in exports including crude oil and petroleum products, cotton, textiles, metal products, chemicals (2007)
Education
• Public education system
• Despite being compulsory, 16% of females do not enroll in primary school
• 93.1% ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary education (2005)
• 71.4% literacy rate, adult total (of people ages 15 and above) (2005)
• 97.5% primary school completion rate, total (of relevant age group) (2005)
U.S. assistance to Egypt
$65.3 billion since 1948
2nd largest recipient of US foreign aid
• Security
o $1.3 billion per year since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979.
o Have provided military equipment including F-4 jets, F-16 jet fighters, M-60A3 and M1A1 tanks, armored personnel carriers, Apache helicopters, antiaircraft missile batteries, and aerial surveillance aircraft.
• Economic
o $415 million requested by the Bush administration in FY2008.
