Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said during a meeting of the American Egyptian Chamber (AmCham), that the ministry is working to reduce the budget's deficit to 3-4% by the year 2021, adding that it's one of the current challenges facing the government. In the meeting held on Sunday, the minister stated that the government has applied a lot of reforms aimed at improving the economy in order to achieve the targeted growth rate of 6% by the year 2021. He added that the government is targeting more sources revenue from taxes, explaining that the taxes will represent 16% of the budget's total income. El-Garhy said that the government would invest more money in education and health in order to attract investments. He believes that the government passed a difficult period by implementing the flotation and reducing the subsidies, adding that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved its $12bn loan for Egypt due to implementing such reforms. He stated that the flotation and fixing the currency was 60% of Egypt's problems, adding that after floating the Egyptian pound, the country will become a global player like many other countries which export more than Egypt. El-Garhy explained that the government will focus on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and fix the problems of investment in Egypt to attract more investment in order to achieve the targeted growth rate. He believes that there are more challenges, adding that he is optimistic about the country. He also stated that the investments in Egypt's local treasury bills registered EGP15bn, which reflects that investors are confident about the Egyptian market.
