Egypt’s spending on health, education jump 82% in 5 yrs

CAIRO - 24 December 2019: The Egyptian Government expenditure on health and education hiked 82 percent during the last 5 years, recording LE 210 billion in 2019, compared to from LE 115 billion in 2014, the Ministry of Finance revealed Monday.

The ministry said in a report that spending on food subsidies rose to LE 87 billion, compared to LE 39.4 billion during the five-year period.

According to the report, the housing project for low- and middle-income citizens has been implemented with the delivery of about 750,000 fully-finished residential units.

Earlier, Finance Minister Mohamed Ma’it said that Egypt’s economic reform program recorded positive results that are praised by international institutions, as the budget deficit decreased from 16.5 percent in 2014 to 8.2 percent in 2019.

The minister explained that the economic reform program was based on raising the efficiency of public spending and rationalizing consumption, deliverying subsidies to those who deserve it through effective programs of protection and social support for the neediest groups. This is in addition to increasing spending on health and education from LE 115 billion in 2014 to LE 210 billion in 2019, and increasing food subsidies from LE 39.4 billion in 2014 to LE 87 billion in 2019.

He added that the largest social housing program in the world has been implemented for low and intermediate income people, where about 750,000 housing units have been delivered to their owners, clarifying that the banking system is an original partner in implementing projects to support and improve the citizens' standard of living, as the central and commercial banks provided the necessary financing with a return reduced to 50 percent sometimes.