Egypt’s total budget deficit jumped to LE 69.6 billion, or about 3.9 percent of the country’s GDP, during the July-October 2012 period.
The number is a marked increase from the same period last year, when the total deficit of the state budget was LE47.2 billion.
According to a Finance Ministry report, state revenues increased by 13.5 percent during the four-month period, despite the increased deficit. This was the result of a 30.7 percent rise in tax revenues, which helped increase total revenues to LE72.8 billion, compared to LE64.1 billion last year.
However, the primary deficit to GDP rate had reached 1.4 percentage points during the same period, compared to 1 percentage point last year.
The report said that the rise in tax revenue was mainly the result of a 66.5 percent increase in income tax revenue to a record LE 22 billion. Property tax revenues also increased 42.2 percent to a record LE5.7 billion.
