Egypt in the competition for economic leading in Africa

The article analyzes the economic potential and development dynamics of Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa in the period from 1970 to 2020 based on GDP indicators in constant prices in 2015 and in PPP, as well as in per capita GDP. As a result, the author concludes that South Africa continues to maintain its position as the economic leader of Africa, although Egypt is developing much more dynamically and has already surpassed the South African Republic in a number of indicators. However, it continues to lead in the monetization of its scientific and technological activities, the volume of FDI and commodity trade with the African countries. Nevertheless, the author believes that in the mid-30s it will be possible to talk about a change in the economic leader in Africa. He attributes the success of Egypt's economic development to the deep modernization of the country in all spheres of public life during the republican rule. Since 2014, President A.F. as-Sisi has also been pursuing a course of carefully elaborated and profound reforms in order to improve public finances and the efficiency of the Egyptian economy, primarily through the development of human capital, and change its position in the system of international economic relations on this basis. However, since initially these changes would have had a very negative impact on the well-being of the vast majority of Egyptians, they were preceded by measures of targeted support for the least well-off segments of the population. The success in the reform of the Egyptian economy allowed it to maintain a high growth rate in the crisis of 2020, while in South Africa and Nigeria there was a deep recession.