Egyptian economy still able to face repercussions of coronavirus: Fin. Min.

CAIRO – 4 January 2021: The Egyptian economy is stable and is still able to face the repercussions of the emerging coronavirus crisis, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait stated Monday.

Maait explained in a statement that the elaborate implementation of the economic reform program and dealing with a proactive methodology helped a lot in containing the repercussions of the coronavirus crisis, and mitigating the shock, to become Egypt, as Bloomberg mentioned, among the 10 fastest growing economies in the world during 2020.

The minister indicated that all these actions supported Egypt to record the second highest economic growth rate in the world at a rate of 3.6 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, and to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio from 108 percent in the 2016/2017 fiscal year to about 88 percent by the end of June 2020, and achieving a primary surplus of 1.8 percent in fiscal year of 2019/2020, while in other emerging countries and other countries, debt and deficit rates doubled, and their growth came negative.

This came during the minister’s meeting with the Italian ambassador to Cairo, Gampaolo Cantini.

Maait said that the government entered the "pandemic" phase with a stronger position than it was two years ago, which confirms that we are on the right path.

"We have achieved our financial and economic targets before the coronavirus crisis, which made us have many motives to complete the process of reform and development to improve the standard of living, and to continue efforts to support the industrial and agricultural sectors to meet the needs of citizens, especially in light of the pandemic,” he noted.

The minister indicated the government's keenness to stimulate the investment environment, to encourage investors to expand their productive activities in a way that contributes to attracting new investments and providing more job opportunities, pointing out that we are looking forward to strengthening bilateral cooperation relations between Egypt and Italy, especially in the economic field, in a way that serves the interests of the two peoples, in addition to exchanging international experiences in combating the emerging coronavirus.

The Italian ambassador in Cairo, Gampaolo Cantini, praised the Egyptian government's success in dealing positively and flexibly with the coronavirus crisis, in a manner that won the praise of international institutions, explaining that the Italian government is looking forward to strengthening bilateral cooperation relations between Egypt and Italy in various fields, especially in the economic aspect, and exchanging experiences in fighting the emerging coronavirus.