Egypt allocates LE10B to support tourism sector within productive sectors initiative

CAIRO - 26 April 2023: Egypt’s Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouli, directed to include the tourism sector in the initiative to support the productive sectors, which currently includes the industrial and agricultural sectors.

 

This comes in the context of expanding the base of beneficiaries of this initiative due to the importance of the tourism sector in supporting the national economy.

 

In this regard, it was agreed to allocate LE 10 billion for the tourism sector within this initiative, bringing the total financing made available through it to LE 160 billion for the targeted productive sectors, which helps them increase their business volume and expand work and production.

 

This came during  a meeting held, on Wednesday, with Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, to review the budget targets for the next fiscal year 2023/2024.

 

The Prime Minister affirmed the government's commitment to work towards achieving the targets of the new budget, especially with regard to reaching a primary surplus of the growth domestic product (GDP), reducing the budget deficit, according to the planned proportions, while expanding the social protection network, and dealing with the effects of economic challenges.

 

For his part, the Minister of Finance stated that the new budget aims for the primary surplus to reach 2.5 percent of the GDP, with a total deficit rate of about 6.37 percent, pointing out that the next budget will witness an increase in allocations for support and social protection from LE 358.4 billion to LE 529.7 billion, in implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, with the aim of mitigating the effects of the global inflation wave on citizens.

 

Maait added that it was agreed to allocate LE 45 billion to buy local wheat from farmers in 2023’s season, starting from the beginning of April, to the middle of next August, with an increase of more than LE 19 billion over last year, pointing out that financial resources will be provided to farmers once they are supplied to support farmers and encourage them to expand the cultivation of strategic crops.