Egyptian competitiveness, Lebanon’s budget

The Egyptian government’s decision this week to impose import tariffs on steel rebars and iron pellets highlights the government’s slippage on structural reforms and also suggests that the pound may be too strong, undermining competitiveness. Elsewhere, Lebanon’s government promised the most austere budget in the country’s history. But political realities will make it very hard to implement and it’s difficult to see a way out of the country’s fiscal problem without some form of debt restructuring.