Our readers expected business conditions in 2017 would improve, and they were right: Almost half of all respondents to our 3Q2017 business sentiment survey believe the business climate in Egypt has improved so far this year. That’s up from just a fifth of you who said at the end of last year that 2016 was a good year to do business in Egypt. At the time, 64% of you expected that business conditions would improve this year.

Looking forward, 63.5% of our readers expect the business climate in Egypt to improve in 2018 and 46.1% say their companies will growth their investments in Egypt in the next six months. Our readers are also more confident, with over half of all respondents saying they expect will edge-out their competition over the next six months.

Inflation remains a concern to everyone in the market, but concerns over regulatory uncertainty and the interest rate environment are also significant. Nearly 74% of you said your investment plans have been negatively impacted by current interest rate levels.

40.6% of our readers say they do not want to move away from Egypt, up from 37% in 4Q2016, and 43.8% of you are not looking to move their possessions abroad, up from just 32% in 4Q2016.

A third of you think Cabinet understands the needs of business, about on par with our last survey, and slightly fewer of you look negatively on the Council of Ministers.

Readers see potential in industries including tourism, real estate, food, and oil and gas. Our readers also think this is the right time to invest in manufacturing and export-oriented businesses, with fintech also getting honorable mentions.

We also got lovely messages of support and encouragement that put a big smile on all of our faces. Many of you are concerned about corruption, bureaucracy, and the increased cost of living. One reader in particular pointed out that he found “the summer of 2017 to have set an absolute record regarding ineffective, disruptive, discontinuous business patterns,” because of the number of holidays that followed Ramadan. We do love our holidays, but we definitely see his point. Below are the complete results: