At a symposium of the Cairo University Faculty of Economics and Political Science on Wednesday, Assistant Finance Minister Hani Qadri said that wages, subsidies and outside bets are the untouchables of the state budget, adding that those items account for 75 percent of total government expenditure.
“No political party can manipulate the state budget,” Qadri said. “It is set by parliament after long debates by different specialized committees.”
“The budget has a contingency of five percent for unexpected fluctuations in global prices,” he explained. “The government made use of this during the last global financial crisis.”
Qadri also said that the Finance Ministry is preparing government expenditure and investment plans for the next ten years.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
