Economic growth has been widely considered an effective instrument to combat poverty,
and child malnutrition. Though there is a substantial literature on the relationship between
economic growth and child malnutrition in a wide range of countries, empirical evidence
on this relationship is sparse in the case of Egypt. Using repeated cross sectional data
from the National Demographic and Health Survey, we examine the association between
income per-capita growth, at the governorate level, and child malnutrition outcomes;
stunting, wasting, and underweight, in Egypt during the period 1992-2008. The
association between child malnutrition and economic growth is examined within a
multivariate framework using a logistic multilevel modeling approach to account for the
multilevel structure of the data, and the clustering of observations. Statistics show that
29% of the children-under-5 years were stunted, 7.2% were wasted, and 6% were
underweight in 2008. Results reveal that child, and household-level characteristics are
more important than aggregate economic conditions (as proxied by economic growth and
Gini index of income inequality) in explaining malnutrition rates in Egypt. In particular,
Child age, sex, birth interval of the child, parent’s education, and household economic
status are particularly important determinants of malnutrition outcomes. Results show a
modest reductive effect of economic growth on child underweight and wasting rates,
while the effect on stunting rates was not statistically significant. Though economic
growth could be a necessary condition for combating child malnutrition, this paper shows
that economic growth by itself is not sufficient and has to be complemented by other
intervention measures that aim directly at improving child health and nutrition.