Sisi calls for achieving financial discipline in State budget

CAIRO - 26 April 2022:  President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has ordered continuing work to achieve the financial discipline of the State budget while taking all measures to ensure maintaining the State's safe financial and economic track.

The president made the remarks during a meeting held on Tuesday with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli and Finance Minister Mohamed Maait along with Deputy Finance Minister for Financial Policies Ahmed Kouchouk and Deputy Minister of Finance for Treasury Affairs Ehab Abu Aish.

The meeting touched on the indices of the financial performance of the State budget, according to Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady.

The meeting tackled the key financial results achieved during the period from July 2021 to March 2022 which were improved significantly, compared to the same period of the year before with the total deficit-to-GDP ratio dropping to 4.9 percent.

Tax revenues went up by 12.8 percent, with the state budget posting a preliminary surplus.

Meanwhile, the finance minister reviewed the outcome of his ministry’s delegation visit to Washington to attend the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings, during which they met with many government officials and international financial and economic experts.

The minister said the IMF has revised its projections for Egypt's real GDP growth in 2022 to reach 5.9 percent, hailing the social protection package that Egypt has adopted to address the economic repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Highlighting the state budget's performance indicators for the 2021/2022 fiscal year, Maait said a preliminary surplus of EGP 91 billion is expected to be achieved and total deficit-to-GDP ratio is projected to drop to about 6.2 percent.

The meeting also touched on the Finance Ministry’s efforts to achieve digitization in all government transactions and services, as well as to shift to non-cash transactions.

In this regard, President Sisi instructed the government to expedite the operational steps to apply digital transformation and financial inclusion.

The president also ordered enhancing efforts to upgrade tax measures and develop electronic systems in a way that would help improve the business climate.