Egypt

Egypt: High Debt Load Alongside Large Standing Military

Egypt's economy was valued at $389.1 billion in 2024, per the World Bank's WDI data, with GDP per capita of $3,338 the same year across a population of 116.5 million. Government debt is projected by the IMF's World Economic Outlook at 87.0 percent of GDP for 2026 — a high ratio that, read against reserves of $30.7 billion in 2025 (IMF IFS), points to a comparatively thin external buffer against the debt stock.

Military Spending and Capacity

SIPRI's 2025 figures place Egyptian military spending at $2.5 billion, equal to 0.606 percent of GDP under SIPRI's own GDP series — a ratio that should not be recomputed against the World Bank's GDP figure, since the two series diverge. That spending level sits alongside a large standing force: the Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset counted 439,000 active personnel in 2022, among the larger forces in the region by headcount, with a CINC score of 0.0118 the same year. Both the personnel and CINC figures are three years older than the 2025 spending data.

Governance

V-Dem's 2025 data score Egypt's electoral democracy index at 0.187 and liberal democracy index at 0.115 — both low, indicating limited competitive elections and weak constraints on executive authority. State capacity scores considerably higher at 0.321, suggesting the state's administrative reach exceeds its democratic openness.

Energy

Egypt consumed 4.0531 exajoules of primary energy in 2024, per Our World in Data. Electricity generation was 245.71 TWh, but that figure is dated 2025, one year later than the primary energy, oil and gas figures (all 2024) — the data are not drawn from a single reporting year and should be read with that mismatch in mind. Oil production was 362.153 TWh and gas production 475.192 TWh in 2024, with gas output moderately exceeding oil in energy terms.

Data Gaps

No more recent personnel or CINC figures beyond 2022 are available in this record, and no nuclear or alliance data are present. The debt figure is an IMF projection for the current year rather than an outturn, and should be treated as such. Taken together, the reserves-to-debt relationship and the low liberal-democracy score are the two figures most worth flagging for analysts assessing Egypt's near-term stability from this dataset alone.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, IMF IFS, SIPRI Milex, COW NMC, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy)