Thursday, February 2, 2012

In debt


"Many farmers I met during my fieldwork in Fayoum Governorate are currently in huge amounts of debt. It is estimated that around 120,000 small farmers are struggling to repay their debts to the bank. Farmers are indebted to the bank because of the agricultural loans they applied for in Mubarak’s days, and specifically under Kamal al-Ganzouri’s cabinet, in the 1990s. 
Hassan, a small farmer from Fayoum, told me that he first applied to an agricultural credit loan at 5.5 percent interest, and then he couldn’t pay. His debt accumulated to exceed the amount set for agricultural loans. Thus, the bank officer restructured his debt by transferring what he owed to an investment credit loan at 17 percent interest rate." (Thanks Anne)

http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/629611

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