Finance Minister
Egypt said on Tuesday that it aims to strike a balance between promoting economic growth, enhancing Egypt’s competitiveness, and maintaining fiscal discipline amidst regional challenges.
These efforts aim at strengthening the economy’s resilience in the face of various challenges, the president said, as he reviewed fiscal policy priorities for the 2026/2027 budget on Tuesday, the Presidency said in a statement.
The plans include implementing targeted tax and customs facilitation measures and expanding the tax base by increasing compliance without imposing new burdens on citizens or businesses, the Presidency said.
During his remarks at the 9th Capital Markets Summit, Kouchouk highlighted the increasing number of companies operating in the Suez Canal Economic Zone as well as other industrial and investment areas nationwide.
The primary objective of this program is to stimulate the growth of Egypt's exports, boost production levels, and generate more employment opportunities.
Egypt is scheduled to join the BRICS bloc of developing nations along with five other countries starting January 2024.
Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said Fitch’s decision to downgrade Egypt to B from B+ comes amid the complex global challenges of the Ukraine war, global inflation wave, and rise in interests.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ordered on Sunday increasing the social protection budget from LE 358.4 to LE 529.7 billion, marking a 48.8-percent increase to ease burdens resulting from the current global inflation, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said
Egypt seeks to pave the way for greater private and local sectors involvement in the eco-friendly investments, added the minister.
Themed “Unity in a time of crises”, the meetings are meant to exchange views about and ideas of effective solutions to problems caused by successive global economic crises.
Egypt’s Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli met Wednesday with Terje Pilskog, CEO of Scatec company, where they discussed the first issuance of green bonds to finance Benban Solar Park.
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has ordered continuing work to achieve the financial discipline of the State budget while taking all measures to ensure maintaining the State's safe financial and economic track.
Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said that over 24 billion Egyptian pounds were provided to the health sector to face Covid-19 pandemic and nearly 47 billion Egyptian pounds were allocated to the education sector to support the education system.
Maait stated in a statement that the government indebtedness decreased from 108 percent of GDP in June 2017 to 87.5 percent in June 2020.
Speaking during the 2021 World Bank Group/IMF Spring Meetings held via video conference, Maait said Egypt is going ahead with the anti-coronavirus measures via meeting the requirements of the health sector, as well as backing the economic sectors and the most affected social strata.
Finance Minister Mohamed Maeit said the State's general budget repaid EGP 288 billion to the National Organization For Social Insurance (NOSI) in 21 months upon directives of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to settle the financial entanglement with the organization.
As for the new taxes law, he noted that the new law is meant to realize justice, expounding that the number of people exempted from taxes rose to 60 percent.
The decision shall then be ratified by the finance minister, he added.
This should be achieved in a way that helps maximize the production capacities, expand the export base, and improve the competitiveness of the Egyptian products at the international market, he added.
In statements on Wednesday, the minister said these facilities will enable citizens to receive services without any added expenses.
