Egypt's economy had just started to recover after years as the novel coronavirus crisis impacted its vital tourism sector. The government has loosened a strict curfew for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in an effort to economy as it brings back many state workers to work and extends the trading hours of shops and malls. Shops and cafes were shut in late March and millions were forced of civil servants to stay home.
"Twenty-five percent of the workforce is in agriculture, which remains unaffected," said Angus Blair, a business professor at the American University in Cairo.
"Many other businesses continue to remain open, albeit with reduced staff, and construction is continuing," he added, AFP reported.
Egypt's main sources of foreign currency have been tourism, remittances sent home from workers abroad, and Suez Canal revenues -- which have all dropped sharply during the global lockdown in travel and trade.
Mahmoud al-Dabaa, a travel agent in the popular seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said he was shocked at how the once bustling travel destination had turned into a ghost town with deserted beaches. "It's the first time I see Sharm completely empty like this," he told AFP.
Dabaa had expected this season to also be profitable, but a string of cancelled bookings signals a bumpy road to recovery. Slow growth and fewer jobs may have "a temporary impact on poverty rates in the country", warned Alia El-Mahdi, former dean of Cairo University's faculty of economics and political science.
"The state must encourage the private sector on a macroeconomic scale so that it can overcome the crisis."
The government approved a 100 billion pound ($6 billion) aid package to stem the fallout of the coronavirus, which has caused 400 deaths and nearly 7,000 infections according to official data.
This included payments of 500 pounds a month to informal workers who lack any social insurance to fall back on. Cairo also sought a fresh loan from the International Monetary Fund last month and cut its interest rates in March to encourage lending for individuals and businesses.
The biggest cash-cow, tourism, has however taken a heavy blow as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered travel worldwide.
It was all the more painful after the country famed for the Pyramids, Nile river cruises and Red Sea resorts had last year booked tourism revenues topping $12.6 billion, the highest in a decade.
On Sunday, the government announced that hotels may start operating again for domestic tourists, provided they stick to a limit of 25 percent of capacity until the end of May.
From the start of June, this will rise to 50 percent, reflecting the authorities' confidence they can keep infections under control while jump-starting the tourism sector.
Egypt hopes to get back to the relatively better times of recent years, which saw annual economic growth rates above five percent.
The government has been implementing financial reforms since 2016 when it secured a $12 billion IMF loan, and investors have flocked back in recent years, driving a booming construction sector.
As recently as January, Egypt was ranked among the top ten countries in Morgan Stanley's Emerging Markets Index.
