Banks will reopen on Sunday 6th February, with Finance Minister Samir Radwan saying the economic situation was “very serious”.
Analysts say the uprising is costing the country at least $310m a day.
Protesters remain in Cairo’s Tahrir Square following Friday’s mass rally calling for Mr Mubarak to resign.
Separately on Saturday 5th February, there were also reports of an explosion at a pipeline that supplies gas to Israel and Jordan. The blast caused a fire near el-Arish, Egyptian state television reported.
Meanwhile, BBC reporter Jon Leyne stationed in Cairo has reported that, “there is still substantial numbers in Tahrir Square – it was a relatively peaceful night although there was some gunfire for a short period.
“The strategy now seems to be to kill the protest with kindness. The authorities have used rubber bullets and baton charges and – some strongly suspect – paid thugs and nothing has worked, so they are saying ‘it’s ok, you can protest as long as you like,” he said in his report.
According to the BBC reporter, “The government is encouraging people to go back to work – the banks will open again – and the hope is things will go back to normal and the whole thing fizzles out. They may think a hard core will remain in Tahrir Square which they can whittle down – but they may have underestimated how much they have lost control of much of the country – many other cities are close to chaos – whether it can return to a level where it can function normally is hard to predict.
“But President Mubarak is not going to resign unless absolutely forced to and the opposition fears if he can make it to the autumn, he can last even longer.”
(Contents of this article were obtained from BBC)