Gov’t investments to Upper Egypt within 3 years hit LE 104B

CAIRO – 8 February 2021: Volume of government investments directed to the governorates of Upper Egypt during (2018/2019 and 2020/2021) amounted to about LE 104 billion, with a growth rate of about 27 percent, compared to the three previous years, Minister of Planning Hala el-Saeed stated.

Saeed added in a statement before the Egyptian Parliament, Monday, that recent years have witnessed an increase in public investment per capita by about 265 percent compared to 2014/2015, and the years from 2017/2018 to 2020/2021 have witnessed a remarkable development in the per capita share of local administration investments, an increase of 195 percent.

She indicated that the Egyptian economy achieved a growth rate of 5.6 percent in the first half of the year 2019/2020, before the impact of the repercussions of the coronavirus, and despite the crisis, the Egyptian economy achieved a growth rate of 3.6 percent during 2019/2020, as Egypt was among a limited number of countries that achieved positive growth in light of the pandemic.

 “It was planned to achieve a growth rate of 5.8 percent in the last fiscal year, and 6 percent in the year 2020/2021,” she noted.

She also pointed out that the unemployment rate decreased to 7.3 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, compared to 9.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019/2020, and the annual unemployment rate decreased from 13 percent in 2014 to 7.9 percent in 2019.

Moreover, she noted that the inflation rate decreased to 5.7 percent in 2019/2020, its lowest level in 14 years, after it recorded 13.9 percent in 2018-2019, and about 33 percent in 2017/2018, and this is one of the fruits of the serious reform steps the Egyptian state has taken since November 2016, which has strengthened the Egyptian economy and its ability to face crises.

El-Saeed stressed that the poverty rate decreased for the first time since 1999 to 29.7 percent compared to 32.5 percent in 2017/2018, as the poverty rate decreased in all regions.

She explained that the largest decrease in poverty was in rural Lower Egypt at 4.73 percent, followed by rural Upper Egypt by 3.79 percent, indicating the concern for a balanced distribution of investments in conjunction with the implementation of a wide range of social protection programs, the largest in Egypt's history.