With a bloated public sector, reluctance to privatise and a labour law that still makes it tough to lay off workers, Egypt's revolution that ushered in an era of "Arab socialism" still shapes the economy 50 years on.
While many former communist countries in central and eastern Europe have embraced market economics in the past decade, Egypt's burst of reforming zeal in the 1990s aimed at reining back the state seems to have run into the sand.
"Still the country has a few elements of a centrally planned economy and socialist approaches, despite the fact that it looks basically like a free market," said Caren Gaboutchian, emerging markets economist at London's ING Barings.
Egypt made a push in the last decade to transform the economy through selling some state-owned enterprises, price liberalisation and partial deregulation of external trade. But economists say there is still some way to go.
They say that many of the problems which Egypt's economy now faces can be traced back to the revolution of July 23, 1952, when a group of young army officers, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, seized power from the monarchy.
Under Nasser, who became president in 1954, the country underwent sweeping reforms, including the redistribution of land, the state's promotion of industrial development, nationalisation and the expansion of social welfare services.
These policies, implemented in the years following the bloodless coup, evened out some inequalities.
But many foreigners who had been an integral part of Egypt's economic life gradually packed their bags and some wealthy Egyptians started sending cash abroad, if they didn't leave themselves. The stock exchange, once a thriving source of capital, fell quiet.
With a strong bias towards Arab nationalism in foreign affairs and state intervention at home, the policies became known as "Arab socialism".
Anwar Sadat, who came to power when Nasser died in 1970, introduced a slightly more liberal economic regime, a trend broadly continued since 1981 by President Hosni Mubarak.
Analysts say the revolution's legacy lives on because today's reforms lack momentum and progress is made in fits and starts.
After a flurry of interest in the stock exchange by foreign investors in the 1990s, trading has again drifted into the doldrums, and foreigners still complain of hurdles that deter investment in the Arab state of 68 million people.
Eberhard Kienle, in his book A Grand Delusion: Democracy and Economic Reform in Egypt, said the reform programme was heavily influenced by the political discourse of the revolution and by fears of a repeat of the 1977 "bread riots" when violent protests erupted after the state sought to lift bread subsidies.
"In the eyes of the regime, the economic reforms were a potential source of trouble, not only because they led, or could lead, to material losses for a large part of the population.
"They were also potentially dangerous in that a considerable part of 'public opinion', influenced by the dominant discourse of the past, considered them irreconcilable with the social and political achievements of the revolution and with their own interests," he wrote.
Kienle said privatisation was seen as a threat not only to jobs but to national independence, because foreigners could buy Egyptian firms, including those nationalised under Nasser.
Egypt's huge public sector still dominates key areas of the economy, from broadcasting to banking.
"The government is insisting on remaining the main employer," said Cairo publisher Hisham Kassem, citing studies which showed that Egyptian state employees worked an average of about half an hour a day in a sector in urgent need of downsizing.
Although it remains a major employer, state wages and incentives remain low. A ministry accountant, for example, may earn just 300 Egyptian pounds a month ($64). Many government workers are forced to supplement their income with second jobs.
Many analysts argue that liberalising the market, including a free exchange rate coupled with lower interest rates, would help boost growth by encouraging the private sector and would in turn help create jobs for those laid off by any privatisations.
Yet, half a century of state intervention and a strong social agenda have shaped attitudes that may be as difficult to transform as the economy itself.
Mahmoud Mohieldin, chairman of the economic committee of the ruling National Democratic Party, said in a recent article that deeper reform required changing prevailing mindsets.
"We may have liberalised parts and segments of the economy through liberalisation and privatisation, but we failed to liberalise the minds of those who are responsible for managing the reform in the civil service, public administration and some of the regulatory agencies," he wrote.
"Enhancing the efficiency of the Egyptian civil service and regulatory agencies, endowing them with qualified human resources, and reviving the golden rules of 'hire and fire' are part of our first challenge," he added.
Yet, some analysts say that such reforming ideas, even if they come from a member of the ruling party, are not necessarily widespread in the present government.
"They are reluctant to reform, reluctant to really let things go... Everybody is moving towards a more flexible, market economy and we are still struggling with a socialist one," said one Cairo-based economist, who asked not to be named.
Analysts blame much bureaucratic red tape on policies ushered in after the revolution and which established the state as the employer of first choice for many Egyptians.
On a recent visit, a top US official noted that Egypt had 52,000 customs inspectors compared to just 20,000 in the United States, the world's biggest economy.
Foreign firms based in Egypt, or seeking to invest here, often complain of excessive costs and delays in importing necessary equipment and tools.
Customs duties remain high as Egypt seeks to protect local industry, such as its key textile sector. In January Egypt introduced controls on what clothes Egyptians could bring into the country without incurring steep duties.
"Egypt maintains a relatively high level of protectionism, which is nevertheless within the norms of the WTO of which the country is a member," Gaboutchian said.
But he said an association agreement with the European Union and talks on a planned free trade pact with the United States were at least positive signs that change could come.