TO THE LIST of spectacular ruins across Egypt, you can now addits economy. The Egyptian pound lost half its value over the past year and has been the world’s worst-performing currency in 2023. On January 5th the government devalued it for the third time in less than a year. Nearly half of the state’s revenue goes to servicing its debts, which amount to 90% ofGDP. Officially, inflation is running at 21%. The price of food is rising even faster. But official figures have not kept up withEgypt’s economic decline, so the reality is almost certainly worse.