Egypt revised its GDP target for the current fiscal year to 5.5 per cent from 5 per cent on and said its economy grew at 4.2 per cent in the 2014/2015 fiscal year, up from 2.2 per cent the previous year.
Total GDP for fiscal year 2014/2015, which ended in June, was 2.4 trillion Egyptian pounds ($307 billion), planning minister Ashraf al-Arabi told a press conference.
"The economy has responded favorably to reform processes put in place by the government and economic stimulus measures that have injected huge additional investments into labor-intensive infrastructure projects," a statement from the ministry said.
Fourth-quarter growth for 2014/2015 rose to 4.5 per cent from 3.8 per cent a year earlier, the minister said.
Total investment was 14.2 per cent of GDP for 2014/2015, up from 13.3 per cent a year earlier, but the country's trade deficit rose to $38.8 billion for 2014/2015 from $34.1 billion the year before.
Egypt said on Saturday it would increase exports to Russia by 15 per cent next year to take advantage of Russian restrictions on Turkish imports and support its own ailing global exports, which dropped 17.4 per cent in the first ten months of the year.
Egypt's inflation rate for 2014/2015 was 10.9 per cent, Arabi said.
Reuters
6 December
