Support, wages account for 85% of state budget: Minister

CAIRO – 25 July 2017: The cost of interests, support and wages amounts to 85 percent of budget, which do not leave a space for complete spending on infrastructure, education and healthcare, Minister of Finance said Tuesday.

Amr al-Garhy, Finance Minister, added in the 4th National Youth Conference that the national projects set by the government since 2014 led to major growth rates, as for the first time the major deficit decreased to 10.8 percent from 12.5 percent in the last fiscal year.

The preliminary deficit fell to 1.8 percent from 3.6 percent, where the government target cutting it to 9 percent in the current fiscal year 2017/18, Garhy added.

Moreover, Minister of Planning Hala al-Saeed noted that all Egypt’s sectors achieved positive economic growth rates in the second half of this year.

The minister highlighted that last time Egypt witnessed positive indicators was in 2007, adding that there is a big improvement in the balance of payments, where a 10.9 percent surplus was achieved to reach $11 billion for the first time, while trade balance declined form LE 40 billion to LE 29 billion.