The 2019-2020 draft state budget targets bringing down the total deficit to seven percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 8.4 percent in the current fiscal year, Egypt’s finance ministry said.
The draft budget targets that GDP would reach around EGP 6.2 trillion with growth hitting 6.5 percent in 2019/2020, a statement issued by the finance ministry on the 2019/2020 fiscal year state budget said Wednesday.
The government seeks to reduce the debt of governmental bodies from 108 percent of GDP in 2017 to about 98 percent in 2018, then to 79.4 percent in 2022, the statement added.
Bringing down the debt will contribute to boosting the competitiveness of the Egyptian economy through reducing inflation and interest rates, a step that will support private sector investment and create real and sustainable job opportunities, according to the statement.
Reducing the debt balance to 79.4 percent of the GDP in 2021/2022 requires achieving high growth rates that would contribute to improving economic performance, in addition to the need of attaining marked improvement in the initial budget balance, so that it would achieve surplus amounting to two percent of GDP, the statement said.
Bringing down the budget deficit will allow for improving the indices of general government debt (local and foreign) so that it would reach 92 percent of GDP during 2018/2019 and hit 79.4 percent in 2022, the statement added.
Egypt Today
15/11/2018
