Egypt expects 19/20 budget deficit to increase to 7.8-7.9% due to COVID-19

CAIRO – 5 May 2020: Egypt’s current fiscal year 2019/2020 is expected to end with a total budget deficit of between 7.8 and 7.9 percent due to the coronavirus crisis, after the government had targeted a deficit of 7.2 percent previously, according to Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma’it.

Ma’it added that the budget project for the coming fiscal year 2020/2021 was expected to achieve an initial surplus of 2 percent, but that after the occurrence of the corona virus crisis, this surplus is expected to drop to only 0.6 percent.

He pointed out that the expectations were also indicating that the draft budget would achieve a total deficit of 6.2 percent, but that the total deficit rate is expected to rise to about 7.8 percent if the crisis continues until December 31, 2020.

The budget deficit in the 2018/2019 fiscal year was 8.2 percent.

The Finance Minister said that there was a government plan to reduce the total deficit to less than 5 percent by 2021/2022, as the total deficit was planned to reach 4.6 percent by that year.

As of Tuesday, Egypt recorded 388 new coronavirus cases and 16 deaths, which raises the total infected patients of COVID-19 to 7201 and the total deaths to 452 according to Health Minister’s daily briefing.

Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed added that 98 patients, were discharged from the hospital after being confirmed that they are completely recovered from the viruses, this also raises the number of recovered cases to 1730 out of 2224 who had been retested for the virus and had received negative results.

Egypt's budget in COVID-19's era

CAIRO - 21 April 2020: Coping with the global and economic circumstances taking place as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the precautionary measures taken to curb it, Egypt's cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, approved, on March 26, the draft budget and the sustainable development plan for the new fiscal year 2020/2021.