BusinessEconomy

Economic reform has made Egypt more able to absorb global shocks: Finance Minister

Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait credited Egypt’s resilience in the face of global and local economic shocks to the economic reform undertaken by the government.

These reforms helped improve financial and economic indicators, he said, and created an environment that attracts investment,  motivating the private sector to expand its participation in the development process thereby strengthening the structure of the national economy, providing more job opportunities, and meeting the developmental needs of citizens.

This came during Maait’s meeting with representatives and investors of The Bank of America Symposium held via video conference.

“We succeeded in achieving a strong growth rate of nine percent of GDP in the first half of the current fiscal year, despite all the negative repercussions of coronavirus pandemic, and the ensuing disruption in supply chains, a sharp inflationary wave, and high prices of goods and services.”

Maait added that the government aims to achieve a growth rate of 5.7 percent of the gross domestic product by the end of the fiscal year in June, in light of the severe global economic effects that most of the world’s economies are suffering from as a result of the current Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

The minister explained that despite all the successive global economic challenges, Egypt is still aiming to maintain a primary surplus of 1.3 percent of GDP, the budget deficit not to exceed 6.2 percent, and the debt-to-GDP ratio to be less than 90 percent by the end of the current fiscal year and to reach 85 percent by 2025.

The Finance Ministry took into account the current global economic challenges in the new fiscal year 2023/2022 budget, he added, and the government announced a package of social measures to support the social groups most affected by economic fluctuations.

 

Related Articles

Back to top button