Egypt's poverty rate declines to 29.7% during 2019/20

CAIRO – 3 December 2020: Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hala El-Saeed, announced Thursday the decline in the poverty rate in Egypt for the first time since 1999.

El-Saeed explained, in a statement, that the poverty rate in Egypt fell to 29.7 percent during the fiscal year of 2019/2020, compared to 32.5 percent in 2017/2018.

She emphasized the decrease in the poverty rate in all regions, and the largest decrease was in rural Lower Egypt by 4.73 percent, followed by rural Upper Egypt at 3.79 percent.

The minister said that the search of income, expenditure and consumption results indicate an increase in the average annual net income of the family at the level of the Republic of LE 60,400 in 2017/2018 to LE 69,100 in 2019/2020, with an increase of about 15 percent.

The average annual income for a family in urban areas rose increased 16.3 percent from LE 69,600 annually in 2017/2018 to LE 80,900 in 2019/2020, and the average annual income of the family in the countryside of the republic rose from LE 52,700 annually in 2017/2018 to LE 59,700 annually in 2019/2020, with an increase of 13.3 percent, according to El-Saeed.

"This relative improvement confirms that with the pursuit of economic reform did not ignore the state for its due role in mitigating the effects of the procedures of this reform at least income groups, it has coincided with the government's efforts to implement the national program for the reform of the economic and social implementation of a broad package of social protection programs is the largest in the history of Egypt,” she stated.

She noted that the state aimed at increasing public investment in the current fiscal plan by 70 percent to reach LE 595 billion, and includes direct investment of LE 47.1 billion for the development of the governorates level, an increase of 51 percent compared to the previous year, with the government's interest in developing the protection system of social and extending social safety nets.

She emphasized the expansion of the number of beneficiaries of the Takaful and Karama program, and the expansion of the implementation of the two initiatives, "a decent life" for the villages most in need, and "survival boats" as the most important tools to enhance the umbrella of social protection.