The chairman of Federation of Egyptian Banks (FEB) and National Bank of Egypt (NBE) Tarek Amer chaired the main session of the annual conference of the Union of Arab Banks in Beirut yesterday. Amer affirmed the importance of political stability in achieving economic development, referring to the efforts exerted by the Egyptian government to achieve economic recovery and regain security. He expected these efforts to be fruitful in the next period. Amer called on Arab businessmen and banks to invest in Egypt. Adnan Youssef, chairman of Union of Arab Banks, said the political turmoil witnessed by many Arab countries has posted a direct impact on economic growth, expecting gross growth rate to fall 3% in 2012, down from 3.3% in 2011 and 4.7% in 2010. Despite the current unrest in the region, the Arab banking sector has not been severely affected by these events, Youssef affirmed. The banking sector's performance and efficiency is still good as it acquires strong solvency and liquidity, in addition to achieving good profits as the value of its assets reached US$ 6.2 trillion and deposits reached US$ 45.1 trillion at the end of 2011. Keynote speakers expected that the Arab spring will cost the countries US$ 400 billion, while the actual losses were estimated at US$ 96 billion at the end of 2011.
