Egypt achieves primary surplus of LE3.2B during 6 months of 2021/2022

CAIRO - 19 January 2022: Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, reviewed the financial performance indicators during the period from July to December of the fiscal year 2021/2022, as well as preliminary estimates of the targets for the current fiscal year.

The Minister of Finance indicated during the cabinet meeting that during the first six months of 2021/2022, the general budget achieved a primary surplus of LE 3.2 billion.

He explained that despite the negative repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic on economic activity, the Ministry of Finance provided all the needs of the health sector to confront the pandemic, with a value exceeds LE 56 billion, and government investments recorded a significant increase, and it paid the dues of the Insurance and Pension Fund to the Treasury, which amounted to LE 75 billion.

Maait clarified that revenues achieved a growth of 10.3% on an annual basis, during the period July-December 2021, and tax revenues increased by 15.7%.

On the other hand, the allocations for all expenditure sections increased significantly, as sufficient funding was provided for the implementation of government investments, including the presidential initiative "Hayah Karima", and the wages and salaries of employees of the budget agencies were increased, in addition to providing sufficient allocations to support items of support and social protection programs, as well as increasing allocations to the health and education sectors.

The minister added that during the first six months of the current fiscal year, the growth rate of medicine purchase allocations amounted to 199%, at LE 9.2 billion, the premiums paid to pension funds by 77%, wages and workers compensation at a rate of 10.4%, and cash support (security pension, Takaful and Karama) by 10.7 %.

“The growth rate of spending on the health sector during the mentioned period reached 30.4%, as LE 56.1 billion were allocated to the sector to reward medical staff and provide medical needs and supplies to confront the Coronavirus pandemic, while the growth rate of spending on education increased by about 21.1%, as LE 90.9 billion were allocated to the sector to reward the workers and provide the requirements of the educational system,” he added.

Maait indicated that the value of investments funded by the state’s public treasury during July-December 2021/2022 increased to about LE 82 billion, compared to LE 73 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal year, which represents an annual increase of 12 percent.

The needs of supporting food commodities were funded by LE 26.9 billion, according to the minister.

The Minister also reviewed the preliminary estimates of the financial indicators for the fiscal year 2021/2022, explaining that it reduced the budget deficit to 6.9%, in light of the actual performance during the period from July to December 2021.

He added that it is also targeted to return the downward path of the debt-to-GDP ratio of budgetary agencies.