Productivity is the ultimate driver of long-term economic growth and improved living standards. Understanding its drivers and dynamics at the firm-level is essential to designing policies that foster competitiveness, innovation, and sustainable development. The In-depth productivity review of Egypt, focusing on the manufacturing sector, exploits micro and macro evidence to provide an in-depth review of the structural factors that may hamper productivity in the Egyptian economy, with a specific focus on the manufacturing sector.
The work presented here draws on the OECD’s MultiProd project, a harmonised micro-aggregated data that allows for cross-country analysis of firm-level productivity dynamics. Through this project, Egypt is being integrated into the MultiProd data infrastructure, enabling more robust and granular assessments of productivity trends across firms and sectors. This effort also strengthens Egypt’s capacity to collect, analyse, and review productivity data, laying the groundwork for more effective policy design and monitoring.
This review presents a detailed diagnostic of productivity performance in Egypt’s manufacturing sector. It identifies structural challenges, as well as opportunities to unleash the country’s potential. It provides actionable policy recommendations to boost manufacturing exports, foster firms’ innovation, and improve access to finance and international markets. Importantly, it also outlines a roadmap to close critical data gaps and institutionalise productivity monitoring. The report’s analysis and assessment are based on the most recent available data and information as of March 2026.
The project benefits from on-the-ground fact-finding and policy missions which took place in 2022 and 2024, respectively. This work was undertaken as part of the Egypt Country Programme (ECP), under Pillar 1, “Economic growth”. The ECP will be a key source of information, practices and guidance for the successful design and implementation of structural reforms to address Egypt’s main economic challenges. It will also enable Egypt to move towards closer alignment with OECD standards and serve as guidance for implementing the recently revised Industrial Development Strategy 2030, Sustainable Development Strategy, Egypt Vision 2030 and other national strategies.