On the other hand, the cheerleaders welcomed the departure of Atef Ebeid, Nazif’s predecessor, confident that Nazif’s record as the minister who revolutionized the local communications industry indicated that he was capable of steering the economy in the right direction.

A year later, citizens are still divided about the new Cabinet and its achievements. Many believe that while it remains almost impossible to find a job, the cost of living has spiraled upward since the full float of the Egyptian pound. The only changes, they claim, have served those who didn’t have any problems to start with. Others cite the tax cuts (slashed by 50 percent), customs reforms (lower import duties and simplified import chapters) and the stabilization of the dollar exchange rate against the pound as being major leaps on the path to economic reform and prosperity.

A random sampling of public opinion from Cairo’s streets:

Life is difficult. There’s a lot of tension, everything is expensive, salaries are low and there’s no work for young people. There has been no improvement; you live here and can see it with your own two eyes. May God have mercy on us. Mohammed Hamed, 29, works at a newspaper stand

The best thing to happen, regarding the local economy, throughout the past year was the stabilizing of the dollar against the pound. Controlling the exchange rate was very important. Also, the QIZ agreement seems to have already taken effect; Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry Rashid Mohammed Rashid recently stated on TV that exports have increased visibly and I also noticed that the quality of local products, especially in the garment industry, has massively improved and prices have gone down. So now we have better quality for less, which means we can compete with imported products. It will take time, but I think we’re headed in the right direction. Amani Ali, housewife, Heliopolis

Rotten! There’s a problem of unemployment and the government isn’t providing jobs for youth. Even the private sector is getting worse; there are no job opportunities and at the same time everything is getting more expensive. Nothing has improved over the past year; on the contrary it’s getting worse.” Adel Hosny, 32, restaurant deliveryman

What economy? I know nothing about politics. I only care for Ahly and Zamalek; I drink alcohol and I watch Soheir Zaki’s belly-dancing videos. See no evil, hear no evil, and talk no evil. This has been my motto ever since I did my mandatory military service. I’m a taxi driver, that’s all I know. Taxi driver, 38, from Nasr City

I left home this morning with 30 pounds in my pocket and now I’m looking in my purse for five pounds to pay for my ride home. This is enough to illustrate the state of the local economy; it’s deteriorating. The government takes, but doesn’t give. I wish they could only strike a fair balance. There is no source of income and things seem worse than they were a year ago, but actually there’s no difference between the ex-Prime Minister Atef [Ebeid] and Prime Minister Nazif. People are trying hard to make ends meet, but no one is able to cope with the current situation. That’s why many people are trying to leave the country, not only younger men, but also women and older men who have their own families. At least this way they can work and get something in return. Amal Maffouz, 2nd year university student, Girl’s College

Ever since the Nazif government took the helm, the situation has been improving. The car market especially has benefited from the customs cuts; there are more job opportunities and prices have gone down. I think [car] prices will decrease even more. Mansour Abdel Gahni, 30, car salesman

The state of the economy is much worse than it was last year and I think it’s only going to get worse judging by the way things are going. Everybody’s suffering. I earn LE 250 a month, and even if I work for 24 hours, I will only make an extra LE 50. But I have to take it because I have no other options. There are simply no jobs. Is this salary sufficient for transportation or buying clothes for my two children or even for food? Who can live on LE 250 a month? They talk about motivating young people to move out of the city and reclaiming the desert, but doesn’t that need money too? The government has achieved nothing maybe it helped the people on top, but the common man is being stamped on day in, day out until eventually he’ll be buried alive. Kamel Ahmed, 32, security guard from Sharabia

Nothing at all has changed. Ahmed Nazif is like the one who came before him. The prices are going up and personally I feel no [positive] difference. I can’t say it’s deteriorating, though. I know that the government is trying and there’s a general feeling that the situation is improving, but there’s nothing tangible up to now. I have the same job, I’m not making more money simply because the man I work for isn’t making more either. It’s all the same for everybody. Mahmoud Abdallah, 35, fruit vendor

The new Cabinet’s plans and strategies have only really been in effect since last September. Generally, I’m optimistic about the state of the economy. The customs cuts on cars were an excellent move and so were the cuts on income taxes. Other revenue tax cuts on companies will definitely shake up the market. The prices of some consumer products have even gone down not significantly, but still. The Smart Village is a great success and now even the local software industry is booming. I personally believe in Ahmed Nazif; he delivered when he was a minister, and even if it seems like his Cabinet hasn’t delivered yet, I think he must have long-term plans. It will take more than eight months to see the changes. But at least the dollar is stable and the black market for hard currency has almost disappeared. Many bankrupt businessmen who had fled the country have also come back and rescheduled their loans. This is a positive move and will certainly help the economy in the long run. Taxi Rasha Rostom, 33, telecom company employee, from Moqqatam

The situation is bad. Everything is two or three times more expensive than it was a year ago. Nobody cares about us; job opportunities are nonexistent. The government talks and talks but does nothing. People who got their diplomas in the 1980s still don’t have jobs. The Nazif government may be good, but it’s selective; it’s no good for simple people like us. Whenever we open our mouths to complain, they say the prices of cars have gone down. What good will that do for me? I don’t drive a car, so why don’t they do something about the price of bicycles for example? They say the prices of electrical appliances are now lower. Are the poor going to eat electrical appliances? Karim Farag, 24, employee at a flower shop

Unemployment is sweeping through the country from Aswan to Alexandria. But there is one question I must ask: Why are there 10 million Sudanese refugees currently living in Egypt? Who is responsible for that? This phenomenon is detrimental to our economy, because Egyptian youth can’t find jobs due to Sudanese employees and laborers being cheaper to employ. It doesn’t matter for a Sudanese refugee if he makes LE 100 instead of LE 300 because he receives aid from the UN to supplement his monthly income. Before, apartment rents in common areas like Ain Shams used to cost a maximum of LE 90 per month, now there’s nothing available for less than LE 500 or LE 600. The UN pays these high rents for groups of refugees, which makes life more difficult for us. Shokry Mohammed, 35, car salesman, Ain Shams

I know that what I say will make no difference. Everything has become much more expensive and salaries are still the same. If a civil servant makes LE 500 a month, he should be spending an average of LE 15 a day, but the minimum he actually spends is LE 20 a day. Where will he get the extra LE 5? Only the president can raise the salaries, only he can push them up or down, not us. Sayed Abdel Ghaffar, 60, owner of a cigarette kiosk, Heliopolis

The government is laying the foundation for a sound economy in the long term. People are still complaining, sure. But what do they expect? People complained in the Czech Republic, too, when its economy was reformed, and look where it is now. What do they expect? Economies aren’t cute little sports cars that can turn on a dime, as you say in English. They’re massive aircraft carriers that take time to turn around. But when they do, they carry an aircraft carrier’s punch, not that of a sports car. We’ll see real benefits to the “man on the street” in another 12-18 months if the government stays its current course. To promise or expect anything else is just nonsense, newspaper talk. Ahmed Khedr, 37, analyst, Mohandiseen

I don’t think you need to ask anyone about the state of the economy because it shows. When people start taking their blood pressure medication every other day instead of daily as they should, what does it mean? They can’t afford it anymore, so instead of buying a complete box of medicine, they now buy it pill by pill. Even when it comes to shampoo and cosmetics, customers now opt for the cheaper sachets. Mohammed Abdel Moneim, 29, pharmacist from Heliopolis

It’s easy to cut taxes, for example, but the real challenge is to change the culture, to build bridges of trust between the private sector and the government. Ministers like Ahmed El Maghraby [Tourism], Rashid Mohamed Rashid [Trade and Industry] and Tarek Kamel [Communications and IT] are technocrats, not political talking heads. People are happy with them because they’re effective. They understand the value of outsourcing because they were against the government’s hierarchy and so they made the correct diagnosis of the problem. If this Cabinet fails, it’s not because they’re not capable, it’s because the burden they inherited was too heavy to sort out in one year. They will always be opposed by a dinosaur called bureaucracy, for one simple reason: That economic reform in Egypt is not moving hand in hand with political reform. It’s a catastrophe because this way people will never trust the government. Tarek Osman, 34, businessman from Heliopolis et