Although some may assert that it is too early to assess the impact of Anwar al-Sadat's liberalization policies on the Egyptian economy, I believe there is enough evidence to measure the important trends that have arisen in their wake. And while the statistics and conclusions may be regarded as tentative, they delineate a picture.
“There is a smell of money around this place.” With this sentence J. R. Frickers, head of Mobil Oil in Egypt, gives us a feeling for the atmosphere that prevailed in Egypt in 1974. The oil price hike of December 23, 1973, created billions of-dollars in surplus funds for Saudi Arabia and the other Arab oil-producing states.