Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly allocated EGP 10bn for the tourism sector within the productive sectors initiative, bringing the total financing made available to EGP 160bn.
This came during a meeting with Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait on Wednesday to review budget targets for fiscal year (FY) 2023/24.
The productive sectors initiative aims to help businesses within selected sectors to boost their business volume and expand production. The initiative currently includes the industrial and agricultural sectors.
Madbouly affirmed the Egyptian government’s commitment to work towards achieving the targets of the new budget. This includes achieving a primary GDP surplus, reducing the budget deficit while expanding the social protection network, and dealing with the effects of economic challenges.
Maait stated that the new budget aims for the primary surplus to reach 2.5% of the GDP, while the total deficit is set at about 6.37%.
He pointed out that the next budget will witness an increase in allocations for support and social protection to EGP 529.7bn up from EGP 358.4bn, in implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, with the aim of mitigating the effects of the global inflation wave on citizens.
Maait added that EGP 45bn was allocated to buy local wheat from farmers in this year’s season, starting from the beginning of April to the middle of August. This marks an increase of more than EGP 19bn over last year.
He pointed out that financial resources will be provided to farmers once they supply the wheat, in implementation of the directives of President Al-Sisi, to support farmers and encourage them to expand the cultivation of strategic crops.
