Egypt’s economic outlook in World Bank’s report

CAIRO – 10 April 2019: The World Bank issued earlier in April a report about the economic outlook for the Middle East and North Africa region including Egypt.

Egypt Today reviews the most significant economic indicators for Egypt in the report, which are:

- The bank expected Egypt to achieve a growth rate of 5.5 percent during 2019, marking the second highest growth rate in the Middle East and North Africa region behind Djibouti, which tops the forecasts by 7 percent.

- It foresaw Egypt’s growth rate to hit 5.8 percent in 2020 and increase to 6 percent in 2021.
- The World Bank’s report also expected real GDP per capita growth to record 3.7 percent in 2019, 4 percent in 2020, and 4.3 percent.

- It anticipated current account balance to reach -2.5 percent of GDP in 2019, and -2.6 percent in 2020, returning back to -2.5 percent in 2021.

- It thought that Egypt’s fiscal balance would record -8.6 percent, -7.5 percent, and -7 percent of GDP in 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively.

- Egypt will be one of the top performers among MENA oil importers, with a growth rate forecast at 5.5 percent for 2019, the strongest since 2008, according to the report.

- The bank also noted that the state’s primary fiscal balance is expected to reach a surplus of 1.8 percent of GDP in 2019.

- The report referred that oil importers, as a group, are expected to grow 4 percent in 2019, up from a 3.8 percent growth in 2018, referring that tourists flocked back to the region, especially to Egypt and Tunisia.

- It stated that the uptick in tourism helped to modestly reduce trade imbalances and current account deficits.