Egypt’s Economic Development Minister said on Wednesday the country’s poverty rate could be reduced to 15 percent from 20 within five years.
"I would say by 2015, we could reach a poverty rate of 15 percent," Osman Mohamed Osman told reporters at a press conference held in Cairo.
Egypt is the Arab world’s most populous state with an estimated population of 78 million. A fifth of Egypt’s population lives on less than a dollar a day, according to the United Nations.
Egypt’s finance minister said in a conference in Cairo on Tuesday he saw the country’s economy growing 6 percent in the financial year ending in June 2011. The economy grew by 5.2 percent in 2009/10 and 4.7 percent in 2008/09.
