Egypt records primary surplus of LE48B within 10 months

CAIRO – 26 May 2021: Egypt recorded an unprecedented improvement in its financial performance indicators during the period from July to April of the current fiscal year 2020/2021, according to Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait.

Maait noted that the state recorded an initial surplus of LE 48 billion during July-April period despite the negative repercussions of the Corona crisis on economic activity, referring to the provision of additional financing of LE 31 billion for the implementation of projects.

The targeted developmental projects, so that the implemented government investments, whose burdens were borne by the Ministry of Finance, amounted to about LE 194.7 billion, with an annual growth rate of 72.3 percent.

“We are continuing to complete the process of financial reform, without any additional burdens on citizens, in a way that will positively affect the improvement of the basic indicators of the state’s general budget,” Maait stated.

The Egyptian minister said that this contributes to enabling the government to enhance spending on development investments in order to improve the quality of life and provide more job opportunities.

This came during his meeting with Glenn Miles, the Australian Ambassador in Cairo, in the presence of Hussam Hussein, Adviser to the Minister of Finance for External Relations, and Doaa Hamdy, Acting Head of the External Relations Unit, that

“We succeeded in maintaining a positive growth rate of 3.6 percent during the last fiscal year,” he stated.

He stated that Egypt is targeting 2.8 percent for the current fiscal year as a growth rate, and 5.4 percent for the new fiscal year, despite the repercussions imposed by the Corona crisis that negatively affected the global economy. Embodying the gains achieved by the economic reform program, which enabled the Egyptian economy to respond positively and flexibly to the pandemic, avoid the worst scenarios, and advance the development movement through a balance between preserving the health of citizens and rotating the wheel of production.

The minister explained that the government adopts a number of incentive programs to encourage the private sector to expand its investment activities in various developmental areas, especially in the priority sectors, foremost of which are: industry, agriculture, transport, and communication technology, to take advantage of promising export opportunities for many neighboring countries, or agreements Free trade, to which Egypt is a party, especially in light of the efforts made by the government to support exporting companies.

He mentioned that the total of the arrears of subsidizing exporters to the Export Development Agency amounted to more than LE 25 billion since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He stressed his country's interest in strengthening joint cooperation in the field of agriculture, and expanding the recruitment of students from Egypt to study in Australian universities, in a way that contributes to the advancement of bilateral economic and development relations, pointing to the success of the Australian economy in overcoming the Corona crisis in a short time, and that his country is working to provide the vaccine to its citizens as soon as possible, as one of the ways to confront this pandemic.