Morsi Calls on Citizens to Support Economy

President Mohamed Morsi has called on citizens and Egypt-based expatriates to support the Egyptian economy with financial donations, the finance ministry announced Sunday. According to a ministry statement, all donations can be deposited in a recently-opened government bank account (no. 333/333) at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) under name Nahdat Misr, or 'Egyptian Renaissance.' In the event that public monies pilfered by members of the former regime are recovered from abroad, the ministry statement added, they too will be deposited in the same account. According to Finance Minister Momtaz El-Said, the new bank account "will go towards meeting the demands of many Egyptian businessmen to bolster the economy."

El-Said went on to stress that all deposits and withdrawals into and from the account would be monitored by several state agencies, including Egypt's Central Auditing Authority. It is not the first scheme of its kind. In March of last year, the finance ministry opened a similar account at the CBE (account no. 25-01-2011) for citizens' financial donations. It remains unclear, however, how many donations – or their value – were made to this initiative, as the CBE was unavailable for comment on the issue.