Both external and domestic economic rents are being appropriated by the
state, which holds various other monopolies, especially in the trade sector.
The state monopolies in internal economic activities are partly responsible
for the inflation of the public sector. Through another significant area of
state monopoly, the foreign exchange market, the state gains considerably
by compelling foreign investors, tourists and Egyptian workers living abroad
to exchange their hard currencies at state-controlled banks at artificially in-
flated rates. From the early 1990s Egypt had started to devalue its local
currency under pressure from the World Bank and the IMF. In 2001 alone,
the Egyptian pound was devalued by 25 per cent and even more drastically
in 2003.