CAIRO - In what were probably the first austerity measures to be taken inside the Government offices, Chairman of the Egyptian Stock Exchange Mohamed Imran on Tuesday decided to slash the salaries of his employees – senior ones in particular – in compliance with the internal laws of the institution. Imran said some senior Stock Exchange officials earn as much as LE60,000 ($10,000) per month, contradicting Egypt's hard post-revolution economic realities. "This is not acceptable anymore," Imran said. "Social justice is one of the top demands of the January 25 revolution," he was quoted by the Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying. There has been growing pressure on the Government to limit the salaries of the nation's civil servants against the backdrop of huge salary disparities in governmental offices. With a political turbulence-induced economic downturn looming after the revolution, the Government will have to respond positively to this pressure, some people say. Imran said Stock Exchange revenues have dwindled noticeably since the revolution, because of a sharp decrease in dealings from LE2 billion per day to LE100 million per day. "This has seriously affected our revenues," he added. Meanwhile, International Co-operation Minister Fayza Abul Naga said yesterday that Egypt has only received $1 billion in aid from the Arab countries since the 25 January revolution, far less than the promised total of $8.2 billion. She added that Egypt has received $500 million out of a promised $3.7 billion from Saudi Arabia and $500 million out of a promised $1.5 billion from Qatar. "No aid has been received from the United Arab Emirates, which promised $3 billion," she said, noting that Egypt's foreign debt has reached $34.4 billion, 15 per cent of this country's gross domestic product (GDP). "The debt has not yet reached a dangerous level – 30 per cent of GDP," Abul Naga explained.
