Egypt’s National Population Council (NPC) of the Health Ministry said Monday that it has managed to lower the birth rate during the past three years by over 50 percent from 6.68 million in 2015 to 2.55 million in 2017.
In a statement on Monday, Deputy Health Minister Tariq Tawfiq said that the decrease shows that the birth rate is going in the right direction and that the government is steadily moving with successful steps to lower the birth rate through a precise strategy.
Tawfiq said the population strategy currently underway is aimed at reaching 112 million people by 2030 instead of 128 million.
He pointed out that this will save over LE200 billion on the state treasury during 2017-2030, represented in education, health and security services.
Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that the country’s population reached 93.3 million in June 2017.
Minister of Planning, Hala al-Saeed, warned in July that a continued high birth rate and significant population increases will hinder the government’s efforts to implement economic reform.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
