Egypt's Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab met Monday with ministers of the Economic Group of the cabinet to discuss the final draft of the new general budget of the fiscal year FY2015/16, Youm7 reported. The meeting will be attended by Central Bank Governor Hisham Ramez and Ministers of Supply, Investment, International Cooperation, Health, Planning and Housing. Under the new constitution, the government has to increase the proportion of budget spending on health, education, research and development, which will help Egypt raise spending to 10 percent of GDP by 2016/17, from about 7.2 percent now. According to the Ministry of Finance's monthly report, Egypt's budget deficit in the first eight months of the fiscal year FY 2014/15 had widened to 186 billion EGP, to reach 14 percent of the nation's GDP by the end of the year.
