Sisi orders to continue economic reforms, alleviate burdens on most-needy

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Wed, 03 Jul 2019 - 10:29 GMT

BY

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 - 10:29 GMT

FILE – Sisi

FILE – Sisi

CAIRO – 2 July 2019: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered to continue the successful implementation of the comprehensive economic reform program.

Sisi directed to focus on declining rates of employment, the budget deficit and public debt, as well as increasing GDP growth rates to enable the State to provide resources that contribute to the improvement of citizens' quality of life, and to alleviate the burden on the most-needy and the caregivers in society.

This came during Sisi’s meeting with Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma’it, in the presence of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli and Deputy Minister of Finance for Financial Policies Ahmed Kojak.

Ma’it stated that initial financial indicators of 2018/2019 showed a significant improvement on more than one level, noting that GDP growth rate increased to 5.6 percent and the budget deficit is expected to decrease to reach 8.4 percent of GDP.

The downward trend in public debt is expected to continue to reach 90 percent of GDP compared to the target of 93 percent, and to achieve the target of the initial surplus of 2 percent of GDP, according to the minister.

As per 2019/2020 budget, Minister of Finance Ma'it pointed out that the expenditures amounted to about LE 1.6 trillion, with an increase of LE 150 billion, compared to 2018/2019 budget, as a result of the increase in the allocations of social programs such as wages of workers in the administrative system of the state.

Moreover, Kojak affirmed that the new budget aims to continue improving the performance of the Egyptian economy, which has achieved positive results since the beginning of the implementation of the comprehensive economic reform program.

“The budget aims to increase the GDP growth rate to 6 percent, to decrease budget deficit to 7.2 percent, and to reduce the public debt ratio to 87-88 percent, as well as to continue to lower the unemployment rate to less than 9 percent, compared to 13.3 percent in the fiscal year 2013/2014,” kojak added.

Sisi ratified Sunday evening the country's budget for fiscal year 2019/2020, according to the Egyptian official gazette, Al-Wakaa’ Al-Masrya.

This comes after the Egyptian Parliament, headed by Ali Abdel-Aal, approved on June 24, a draft law linking the state budget and schedules, annexes and visas for the fiscal year, which began on July 1.

In April, Minister of Finance Ma'it reviewed Egypt's draft budget for new fiscal year 2019/2020 in the Parliament, stating that the draft budget aims to increase the growth rate to about 6 percent, at a cost of LE 6.163 trillion.

Ma'it added that the new budget focuses on the growth of containment and sustainability to result in reducing inflation to 10.5 percent, and the unemployment rate to 9 percent.
The minister stated that it also aims at reducing the total budget deficit to about 7.2 percent of GDP compared to 8.4 percent in FY17/2018.

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