Finance Minister Mohamed Ma'it said on Sunday Egypt is set to put into the effect the biggest budget in its history for the upcoming 2018/2019 fiscal year. Egypt's fiscal years starts on July 1 and lasts until June 30 of the following year. Ma'it, in press statements, said expenditures in the new budget are estimated at 1.4 trillion pounds 200 billion pounds up from the 2017/2018 budget. The increase of expenditures is attributed to the increase of the salaries of the administrative apparatus that went up from 30 to 270 billion pounds and the increase of budget-financed government investments by 42 percent from 70 to 100 billion pounds. The implementation of the new budget coincides with the second term of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi so it will mirror the directives of the political leadership as regards economic growth rate, which is expected to reach 5.8 percent. Financial allocations for education and health sector in the new budget unprecedentedly increased from 222 to 257.7 billion pounds, he said. Allocations for treatment at State expense upped from 4.6 to 5.7 billion pounds, he added.
