The Minister of Finance Mohamed Moeit said that Egypt is doing well regarding the current emerging markets crisis, adding in his speech at the monthly luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, on Wednesday that if the emerging markets crisis continues, Egypt will have a big problem.
Moeit noted that his ministry is working hard to manage the negative effects of the crisis in Egypt, adding, “if we could manage effects of the emerging markets crisis, we will have a success story to tell others about. We have a good diversified economy, which supported our situation years ago when the tourism sector collapsed.”
The minister said that Egypt’s stock market is negatively affected by emerging markets crisis, noting that the problem adds external pressure of uncertainty on the situation in Egyptian economy.
“Within the next month or weeks we hope we will have good news in terms of improving the situation of the emerging markets,” said Moeit, however, he noted that Egypt’s economy is on the right track in terms of monetary and fiscal aspects.
Moreover, the minister said that the government aims at expanding its taxation base in the next period, adding that his ministry will implement new reforms in terms of property tax, customs, and taxation system.
Minister said that the biggest challenge that face the ministry is debts service commitments, reaffirming the ministry’s efforts to boast the economic growth of the GDP to reach 6% in the fiscal year 2018/19 over remarkable attention for infrastructure, electricity, gas, roads and industrial sectors.
“We are working on our policies stability and to introduce new laws that support economic growth. On October, we will stop importing gas, while next year we will be an exporter of the natural gas, which will positively affect our growth and help solve unemployment issues.”
Meanwhile, the minister said that his ministry will offer two public sector companies in October, another couple of companies in November and one in December.
Moreover, Moeit said that the IMF mission will visit Egypt by the end of October for the fourth review, while receiving the next tranche of the loan is expected to take place by December.
