Egypt’s budget transparency score improved: World Bank

CAIRO – 18 April 2018: Vice President of the World Bank for the Middle East and North Africa, Hafez Ghanem, praised Egypt’s budget transparency score in the Open Budget Survey conducted by the World Bank.

Egypt’s commitment to realizing financial transparency led to the country’s jump on the charter of the Open Budget Survey from the 16th rank to the 41st rank. For the first time in six years, Egypt has acquired more than 25 points on the OBS charter.

“Efforts are exerted to introduce more reformations in the sector of financial transparency in Egypt,” said Egyptian Finance Minister Amr el Garhy during a session held Tuesday as a part of the 2018 Spring Meetings.

Garhy added that the ministry will establish a specialized unit to follow the financial transparency and accountability of the public budget.

The 2018 Spring Meetings were attended by several ministers of finance from different states, in addition to representatives of civil society organizations.

The World Bank upgraded its expectations about the Egyptian Economy during the upcoming two years, anticipating that the gross domestic product will record 5 percent in 2018 and 5.5 percent in 2019, reaching 5.8 percent by 2020.

The World Bank forecasted earlier in the report of the Economic Observatory for the Middle East and North Africa that Egypt will record a growth rate of 4.5 percent in 2018, and that this rate will rise to 5.3 percent in 2019.