Select one country out of group A, and one out of group B. Take a view and compare Egypt’s latest balance of payments full-year figure 2018/2019) with the latest available BOP for each of the other two countries (search them on the internet). Identify three items under the current account and three items under the capital and financial account that you would consider as having major differences or similarity between Egypt and each of the other countries. Comment on each item of the six. Identify the reason for this difference / similarity, why you think Egypt is better/worse than the others under each item.

For example, if you select trade balance as an item, mention which country has a better trade balance and why is the figure for Egypt better/worse and what can Egypt/the other country do to enhance its trade balance. Your answer should not be trade balance of country X is better because its imports are less than exports. You should explain why are imports less and why are exports more …etc.

Guidelines & Hints

• Your reply should be limited to a maximum half a page per item.
• When selecting the items (headings / sub headings), use the BOP short format that is on the slides.
• BOP for the country you select should be the latest full year published. Take care not to select a quarter BOP. For some countries, the latest available full year BOP will be 31/12/2019 while others (like Egypt) it could be 30/6/2019. Compare it to Egypt’s 2018/2019 full year BOP.
• Some countries post their BOP in their own currencies and not US$. You should convert them to Dollars to be able to compare.
• You will normally find the BOP on a country’s Central Bank website

Group A	Group B
UAE	Brazil
Saudi Arabia	Indonesia
Qatar	China
Kuwait	India
Japan	Argentina
USA	Malaysia