An Egyptian woman stands in front of tanks blocking the street outside the Egyptian state television building during a demonstration by Coptic Christians on March 10, 2011. Sectarian clashes killed at least 13 people in Cairo this week, as old regime diehards attacked pro-democracy protesters in the biggest challenge yet to Egypt's new military rulers. - Photo by AFP.

CAIRO: With Egypt's stock market closed for nearly five weeks, analysts and bankers are growing increasingly worried that the full effect of the protests that ousted Hosni Mubarak will be even larger than anticipated.

For the past few weeks, Egyptian officials have looked to downplay the potential damage to the economy. They said growth for the current fiscal year may take a hit, but the Arab world's most populous nation would ride through the unrest. That is now being called seriously into question.

The 18 days of protests that toppled Mubarak, followed by mass labor unrest, have hammered at production and sharply unsettled daily life in the country. In addition, some investors have been left feeling that their money was being held hostage because of individual cash transfer limits _ aimed at preventing former officials and businessmen under investigation from sending their money abroad _ hindered investors as well.

''There's still a fair amount of uncertainty, and there has been a clear and direct hit to the economy,'' said Karim Helal, managing director of CI Capital.

Helal said that there are major concerns about the deepening of the budget deficit as the caretaker government looks to satisfy protesting workers who are demanding higher pay and more benefits. Also weighing on Egypt's economic picture is the expected downturn in foreign direct investment and tourism, two of the country's main foreign revenue sources.

Economic growth figures for the current fiscal year have been revised down to around four per cent from a projected six per cent before the Jan. 25 uprising. For calendar year 2011, the forecast has been set as low as negative 2.5 per cent by at least one investment bank.

Analysts said domestic spending is sharply down, and there is little evidence that consumers are opening their wallets for big ticket items. In addition, credit growth _ as defined by bank lending _ is seen as sharply retracting, and some consumers are complaining that banks have significantly tightened their lending policies.

''Will banks be cautious in lending in this environment? Absolutely,'' said Wael Ziada, research head at Cairo-based investment bank EFG-Hermes, adding that credit growth this year would likely be ''minimal.''

Highlighting Egypt's challenges is that the cost of insuring its debt has climbed. Also, the government, after holding several successful Treasury bill auctions, sold only three billion Egyptian pounds ($508 million) of the 4.5 billion pounds in T-bills offered earlier this week.

Even so, Hisham Ramez, deputy governor of the Central Bank, told The Associated Press ''it went well,'' adding that some of the bids were for yields far higher than the Finance Ministry was willing to accept.

Yields on the 266-day T-bills were bid as high as 13.95 per cent, while the average yield for those sold was 12.473 per cent.

That gives a clear indication that investors are viewing Egypt with increasing caution.

Despite that, the government still did not feel that it had to accept such high interest rates.

The Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee was to meet later Thursday, and analysts expected that overnight lending and deposit rates would remain unchanged.

Ramez also downplayed the likelihood that the Egyptian pound could face major depreciation pressures, saying that it was trading in a ''tight range.'' The currency has slipped to about 5.91 to the US dollar by Thursday, from around 5.88 to the dollar last week.

''The market is well balanced,'' he said. ''Volumes are at normal levels. There is nothing to worry about.''

The Central Bank stepped in weeks earlier to prop up the currency as its slipped to close to six pounds to the US dollar, and indicated that it was willing to do so again if needed.

In part, the stability of the currency has been linked to restrictions on the outflow of capital _ a level set at $100,000 per day for individuals.

Economists warn that when such limits are inevitably lifted, even gradually, the currency could come under pressure if the key foreign revenue sources such as tourism and investments aren't back up and the government is left looking for other foreign currency to finance its account deficit.

In one bit of good news for Egypt, ratings agency Standard & Poor's on Thursday said it removed the long-term foreign currency ratings from CreditWatch negative and affirmed its ratings of the country's unsecured foreign currency sovereign debt.

''The ratings could stabilize at current levels, in our view, if Egypt's political transition strengthens the social contract and if government debt dynamics remain within our forecast of net general government debt reaching a plateau of 62 per cent of GDP,'' said S&P credit analyst Mike Noone. But if the political transition falters, S&P warned, Egypt's ratings could be lowered this year or in 2012.