Growth rate
Maait added Monday during a conference to review the financial performance indicators for the current fiscal year budget (2022/2023) that the unemployment rate fell to 7.2 percent in June 2022 by providing 826,000 jobs.
The bank had raised its forecast in April by 0.3 percent to reach 5.6 percent in January.
El-Said noted during thh cabinet meeting that the growth rate during the third quarter of the current fiscal year (January - March 2022) reached 5.4 percent.
In its latest World Economic Outlook issued Tuesday, the IMF expected that Egypt's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 would grow by 5 percent.
El-Said explained that the growth rate during the first half of the current fiscal year reached 9 percent, adding that the growth rate is expected to reach between 6.2 percent to 6.5 percent by the end of this year, to be one of the highest growth rates that were expected, as it exceeded the expectations of international institutions for growth rates during this year.
In a press conference held by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli on Wednesday, the minister said that the government expects the growth rate to reach 6.2-6.5 percent instead of 5.4-5.6 percent.
It means that the average growth rate for the first half of the year, from July to December, hit 9%, the premier said in a press conference following the government meeting held at the New Administrative Capital.
Maait pointed out that despite the sharp rise in oil prices and shipping costs, as a result of the good management of the repercussions of the post-pandemic outbreak, as well as the positive economic performance.
Maait added that the draft budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023 will witness greater spending on improving people's lives and facilitating decent livelihoods, in implementation of presidential directives.
This came in an infographic report published by the Information Center under the title of "The Egyptian economy records the highest quarterly growth rate in 20 years".
The minister explained that Egypt seeks to sustain the downward path of debt rates to GDP by adopting the implementation of a public debt management strategy based on diversifying sources of financing and issuing “dollar” bonds, “Eurobond” bonds, “green” bonds, and “sustainable development” bonds and sukuk.
The report expected an increase in GDP growth rates in Egypt during 2022 to reach 5.2 percent, and then 5.8 percent in 2026.
The country seeks to contain the rate of inflation to settle at 6 percent, unemployment at 7.3 percent and poverty at 28.5 percent, she said.
The report highlighted a positive projections for the Egyptian economy till the Fiscal Year 2023/2024 after overcoming the impact of the first year of the coronavirus pandemic along with a positive growth due to a rise in exports and revenues of commodities and services.
“For the fiscal year 20/21, we still expect a growth of 2.8 percent, and we see that the recovery has begun with expectations of a stronger revival in the next fiscal year, reaching growth to 5.2 percent."
According to EBRD's report, it predicted that growth would decline during the fiscal year 2020/2021 to reach 2.5 percent, with expectations that it would rise during the new fiscal year 2021/2022 to reach 4.5 percent.
"The Middle East region has lost 5 percent of its growth rates due to the pandemic, amid expectations that it will reach 1 percent and increase to 3 percent within two years, which are positive rates, but not high rates," Mohieldin stated.
El-Said clarified that the average growth rate during the first nine months of the fiscal year hit about 1.9 percent, compared to about 5.4 percent in the nine months of 2019/2020.
Minister of Finance clarified that this comes as a result of the expansion of development investments that reflect the success of the state, in achieving a balance between preserving the health of citizens and turning the wheel of the national economy.
Egypt is considered the third best country in terms of growth rates during the last fiscal year despite the Corona pandemic, which affected the global economic slowdown, indicating that the growth rate reached 3.6 percent, and 5.6 percent was targeted.
