Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait revealed, on Tuesday, that he expects the country’s GDP growth to stand at around 2.8%-3.5% during fiscal year (FY) 2020/21.
“The growth could be coming from many promising sectors which we are focusing on, the foremost of which is the construction sector, which I believe is still giving us good outcome,” Maait said.
The Minister’s remarks came during the week-long virtual “Egypt’s Green Economy” programme, organised by the British Egyptian Business Association (BEBA) and the Egyptian-British Chamber of Commerce (EBCC).
“In addition to this, the oil and gas sector is still performing very well, and the agriculture sector is now receiving more of our attention, as Egypt’s agricultural exports are performing well,” he added, “I think we have a good opportunity in terms of agriculture performance, both internally and externally.”
There some other sectors, such as industry and pharmaceuticals, which are also doing well, and among the many promising sectors which could contribute to the growth of GDP, he added.
Regarding Egypt’s latest financial results, as reported on 31 October, Maait said that the country has achieved an increase of over 18% in total revenues compared to the same period of last year.
Egypt’s tax revenues also increased by 13.4% during the first four months of the current FY, compared to the same period of last year.
“Our overall budget deficit in these four months was about 2.6% compared to last year’s 3.1%, and we achieved a small amount of primary surplus of around EGP 5bn, compared to last year which was around EGP 16bn, but still, reflecting a primary surplus,” Maait said.
“We are very proud to achieve all these remarkable results in the first four months of our budget, compared to last year when we did not have the negative effects of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,” he said, “We hope that in the coming months, we will be able to get a vaccine for the virus, thereby seeing a return to relative normality in order to reduce its negative effects.”
“However, if there is a second wave, we are ready to address it as we have the resources, and reserves, which were allocated in March, because this was under discussion relating to the budget,” the minister added, “We were asked by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to allocate a good amount of reserves in case there was a second wave.”
