Inflation to decline early 2018: Finance Minister

CAIRO – 19 October 2017: Egypt’s inflation rate should decrease by the beginning of next year, Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said in a roundtable discussion hosted by CI Capital in the UK.

The roundtable meeting hosted 13 leading global institutional investment firms with assets under management totaling approximately $1.5 trillion; Garhy noted that real GDP growth is expected to stand at five percent during the current fiscal year.

“The government also plans to sustain the six percent GDP growth within the next 10 years as part of a longer-term program approved last year,” he said.

During the roundtable, Garhy said that the government’s budget deficit is forecasted to mark 9.5 percent during FY 2017/18, representing a 1.4 percent decline compared to last year.

The minister highlighted plans to issue $3 billion in international bonds during the first quarter of 2018; that is in addition to a potential 1 billion Euro-denominated bond issuance in light of trade relations with the EU.

As part of Garhy’s attendance of annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington last week, he met leading U.S.-based institutional investment firms managing $280 billion in assets, in a roundtable organized by CI Capital Holding as well.