Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday that his country seeks to lower its annual inflation target to around 13 percent in 2018. Speaking at the global financial inclusion conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Sisi further said Egypt's budget deficit stood at 9.5 percent during the fourth quarter of the 2016-2017 financed year, which ended in June, down from 11.5 percent during the same quarter last year. The Egyptian president inaugurated earlier the 9th Global Policy Forum, organised by the International Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), brings together some 95 states and 119 international financial institutions. AFI has said the forum is the "largest and most comprehensive event" it has ever held. The gathering will introduce "unique financial inclusion initiatives undertaken by members in the Arab region," AFI said on its website. Egypt's key inflation rates soared to multi-decade highs in June on the back of energy subsidy cuts agreed with the International Monetary Fund as a condition of its $12 billion three-year loan. Annual urban inflation for July hit a critical high of 33.0 percent from 29.8 percent in June, the highest since June 1986, and the second highest since Reuters data began in 1958.
