Industrial sector growth climbs 4.7%: Minister

CAIRO – 21 June 2017: The industrial growth rate hiked 4.7 percent in the first nine months of fiscal year 2016/2017, Minister of Planning Hala El-Said announced Wednesday.

The increase was attributed to improved activities in the food industries, chemical and pharmaceuticals sectors and availability of energy of the industrial sector, Said said in a statement.

Egypt’s official statistics agency, CAPMAS, said earlier this month that the industrial sector’s production value rose 11.3 percent in the third quarter of 2017, up from LE 84.8 billion ($4.6 billion) in Q3 2015.

In quarter-on-quarter calculations, industrial production, excluding crude and refined petroleum, hiked 2.8 percent from LE 91.8 billion in Q2 2016, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

The largest contribution in the industrial sector was reached by the coke and petroleum products sector, which represents 16 percent of the total industrial production value.

Shaping 13.2 percent, the food products sector came at the second position, followed by the iron and steel sector that contributed 6.1 percent to the industrial value.