This paper attempts to shed some light on the problems and prospects of trade liberalization in financial services for selected Arab countries. The paper starts by considering the background of GATT and the case for trade liberalization. It then highlights the case of the Uruguay Round with...

The core principles of Islam lay great emphasis on social justice, inclusion, and sharing of resources between the haves and the have nots. Islamic finance addresses the issue of"financial inclusion"or"access to finance"from two directions -- one through promoting risk-sharing contracts that...

There is a worldwide growing effort to reforming and privatizing banking systems. The main motivation behind such trend has been that public ownership of banks tends to be associated with financial repression, poorly developed banking system, higher interest rate spreads, slower financial...

Sound Estimates of equilibrium exchange rate have become a cornerstone for any country that adopts an outward oriented macroeconomic management policy. This paper attempts to construct an index for Egypt's Equilibrium Real Exchange Rate (ERER) for the period 1970-2001 so that misalignment...

This paper discusses the reasons for state intervention in the financial sector in Egypt and analyzes major tools of intervention such as setting ceilings on interest rates, imposing high reserve requirements, developing directed credit schemes and intervention in the portfolio composition of...

This paper assesses the mortgage and housing finance market in various MENA countries, in an attempt to identify the main impediments. The approach followed involves critical analyses through reviewing the economic and political conditions for a successful mortgage finance system, as well as the...