Egypt targets 5.4% growth in FY2021/2022 in tandem with containing pandemic

CAIRO – 31 May 2021: Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala al-Said stated Sunday in the Senate's plenary session that the government targets GDP growth of 5.4 percent in FY2021/2022 given that the pandemic is expected to be contained by mid-2021 as a result of discovering vaccines and making them available.

Concerning the relative contributions of both the private sector and the government sector, El-Said explained that it is expected that the private sector will contribute about 68 percent of the total domestic production in FY2021/2022, with the increase in the contribution to agricultural, tourism, real estate, industrial, and constructions with contributions ranging from about 85 percent and 100 percent.

El-Said noted that the sectorial distribution of the estimated production for the year of the plan shows that the fast-growing sectors include restaurants, hotels and telecommunications, construction and building, petroleum, the Suez Canal, and health and educational services.

Dr. Hala El-Said said that the third section of the budget plan reviews the overall picture of the economic balance on the hypothesis of recovery from the Corona pandemic and its economic repercussions by the end of 2021.

El-Said explained that it is expected that production will gradually turn around, showing the variation in sectors' growth rates according to their degree of flexibility and their response to "stimulus" initiatives, in addition to reviewing the volume of total resources expected to be available and their uses in the year of the plan, and estimates of output, local production, and economic growth and their rates.

El-Said added that the plan targets the implementation of the structural reform program, and continuing to adopt financing packages and incentive policies, rationalizing aspects of public spending, and implementing the national projects plan, in addition to stabilizing economic conditions, improving performance indicators, and growing international institutions' confidence in the Egyptian economy.