Egypt

Consumer credit continued to record strong growth in outstanding balance and gross lending in 2019, albeit partially in line with inflation, with particular dynamism in early 2019. Players will continue to invest in marketing and promotions to ...

The Egyptian economy has been showing signs of recovery after a prolonged recessionary period, featuring major devaluation of the local currency and high inflation rates. After reaching a high in 2017, the inflation rate has since been easing ...

Low income levels and financial instability continue to negatively affect charge cards. With the difficulties facing the overall economy of the country, charge cards are still unpopular in Egypt. In addition, the general requirements for issuing ...

Partnerships between banks and merchants are offering a new form of payment in Egypt. Several banks have been partnering with merchants in order to offer discounts, instalments and credit facilities, and with the inclusion of valU fintech solutions, ...

As of 2019, around 75% of the banks in Egypt were offering internet banking services. The market’s overall reaction to the continuous digitisation of banking services has been highly promising to date. Prior to 2018 only a few banks allowed the use ...

Financial cards and payments in Egypt continued to perform positively in 2019, despite facing challenges, such as relatively low card penetration rates, underdeveloped payment infrastructure, a large rural population and the strong presence of ...

Meeza is a financial inclusion initiative from the Egyptian government to aid the push towards cashless payments. Meeza, which is designed to be an Egyptian National Payment Scheme, was developed by Egyptian Banks Company (EBC) under the supervision ...

Store cards are not present in Egypt. Given that the wider financial cards and payments market is still relatively underdeveloped, it is unlikely that such products will be introduced over the forecast period....

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) is home to greatly differing economies, with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) being among the richest globally in terms of GDP per capita, while many Sub-Saharan markets belong to the poorest ...

The region has recovered from economic uncertainties. Over the forecast period, improved stability is expected to continue driving consumer spending. Store-based retailing maintained dominance. Nonetheless, online retail has been gaining importance, ...

Huge sales of OTC analgesics are generated in Egypt on an annual basis and 2019 was no exception as further strong increases in demand were seen. The main reason for this situation is that self-medication is extremely common in Egypt, with the ...

2019 saw further strong growth in sales of cough, cold and allergy (hay fever) remedies and this can be attributed mainly to the strong preference for self-medication among the majority of Egyptians. Faced with long waits and high prices for ...

Living conditions in Egypt’s major cities are still some way behind those of developed countries, with life in Cairo in particular presenting challenges for many. This continues to support strong growth for dermatologicals, principally because high ...

Egyptian consumers have access to a wide variety of dietary supplements at various different price levels and this supported the category’s positive sales performance in 2019. There are strict restrictions on the distribution of dietary supplements ...

Digestive remedies continued to register rising demand in 2019 and the popularity of self-medication among the Egyptian population can be cited as a major reason for the category’s ongoing success. The vast majority of the Egyptian consumers turn to ...

Much of Egypt’s population is constantly exposed to severe air pollution. In particular, Cairo and its surrounding areas are frequently covered by large clouds of dense smoke and vapor, with the very high temperatures that prevail for much of the ...

Egyptian people have long turned to herbal remedies when faced with a variety of mild or moderate illnesses and this has created a strong tradition of herbal remedy usage in modern Egypt. This strong and wide consumer interest in all-natural remedies...

NRT smoking cessation aids remains a negligible category in Egypt. Smoking prevalence among the Egyptian population is high, while awareness of the negative health effects of tobacco use and nicotine addiction remains low. Egyptians who smoke tend to...

2019 saw further increases in value sales across most consumer health categories despite the strong unit price increases that were seen, the result of high inflation. Egypt is still recovering from the severe devaluation of the Egyptian pound against...

Most consumer health companies active in Egypt do not manufacture products specifically for children. This has resulted in paediatric consumer health remaining highly underdeveloped. Instead of developing products that would be categorised under ...