CAIRO — The selection of Hazem el-Beblawi as Egypt’s interim prime minister on Tuesday appeared to send a signal that the military-led transitional government intends to move forward with economic reforms and restructuring including reductions in the country’s vast public subsidies.

Mr. Beblawi earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Paris, worked as an economic consultant and a United Nations official, and became a prominent critic of President Hosni Mubarak’s economic policies for failing to either open up free markets or serve the poor.

He embraced the revolt against Mr. Mubarak, served as finance minister of an earlier transitional government and became a prominent member of the liberal Social Democratic Party. And he has been a forthright critic of Egypt’s bloated energy subsidy programs, which make up more than a quarter of the national budget.

“We must create a clear understanding for the public that the level of subsidies in Egypt is unsustainable, and the situation is critical,” Mr. Beblawi said in an interview with Daily News Egypt, an English-language newspaper here, shortly before the ouster last week of Mohamed Morsi, who replaced Mr. Mubarak as Egypt’s first freely elected president.