Finance min: LE 20.8 billion initial surplus in Egypt's FY 2018/19 budget

CAIRO - 21 January 2018: Egypt's budget has achieved an initial surplus of LE 20.8 billion during the first half of the 2018/2019 fiscal year, Finance Minister Mohammed Ma'it said on Monday.

The minister described this as good results, saying in a press statement that this initial surplus represents 0.4 percent of GDP, compared with an initial deficit standing at 0.3 percent of GDP in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Ma'it explained that Egypt currently adopts a policy based on encouraging investments in infrastructure to attract the private sector in all vital economic sectors, which have remarkably improved.

The 2018/19 budget is planned to reduce the debt rate of bodies covered by the budget to 93 percent of GDP and achieve a real growth rate of 5.8 percent, he added.