Momtaz El-Saeed

Momtaz El-Saeed (also known as Momtaz Saeed Abu El Nour; born 1948) is an Egyptian civil servant who once served in the government of Egypt as minister of finance from 2011 to 2013.

Early life and education Saeed was born in 1948. Saeed was called from retirement in the middle of 2011 to work as deputy finance minister under Finance Minister Hazem Al Beblawi.

On 2 August 2012, Saeed was sworn in as part of Prime Minister Hisham Qandil's cabinet. He was one of the independent ministers in the cabinet. Saeed leans towards the conservative side, and no dramatic policy changes were expected from him.

Egyptian economic crisis Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Egypt's economy entered into decline, leading Egypt's central bank to sell dollars in order to bolster Egypt's pound. Egypt's economy faces a balance of payments crisis, and is also being further undermined due to high state borrowing costs.

On 22 August 2012, it was reported that following a meeting with Managing Director Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund, Saeed denied rumors pertaining to an imminent devaluation of the Egyptian pound. He also said that devaluation of the pound was not a condition for a $4.8 billion loan that Egypt was requesting from the IMF. Saeed also added that the IMF would not interfere with the Egyptian government’s new reform policies, and that the loan is an indication that Egypt's economy is heading forward, and it should encourage foreign investment. In regards to the loan, Saeed said that Egypt is "entitled to assistance when going through a crisis" because Egypt is one of the founding members of the IMF and contributes to the IMF's capital. El-Saeed explained that the loan is mainly based on an economic and social reform program that Egypt prepared in order to escape from Egypt's economic crisis.

Collection of taxes Saeed announced in May 2012 that he ordered the Egyptian tax authority to implement legal changes that would allow Egypt to collect billions of pounds of unpaid taxes, and would speed up collection and facilitate taxation of small businesses. El-Saeed said that Egypt is owed 150 billion pounds in uncollected taxes.