Egypt's gross domestic product (GDP) reached EGP 2.5tn in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2016/2017, compared to EGP 2tn in the same period of the previous fiscal year, a growth of 25%, while the targeted rate is EGP 3.4tn by the end of June. The economic and social performance report showed that the growth rate in the third quarter of the FY 2016/2017 was 4.3%, compared to 3.6% in the same period of 2015/2016. This increase came on the back of the growth of the tourism sector by 80%, the communications sector by 10.7%, the construction sector by 7.9%, as well as the transport and storage sector by 4.4%. The Ministry of Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Reform seeks to achieve a growth rate of 4% by the end of FY 2016/2017, which requires that the growth rate of Q4 reaches 4.5%. The contribution of investment during the third quarter of the current fiscal year increased to 1% compared to 0.9% in the same period of the previous FY. Net foreign trade also contributed positively by 0.2% compared to a negative contribution in the last FY of 1.6%. On the other hand, the contribution of consumption decreased during this period to 3% compared to 4.4% in the third quarter of the previous FY. The total investments implemented in the first nine months of FY 2016/2017 reached EGP 391.7bn compared to EGP 287.1bn in the same period of the previous fiscal year, a growth of 36%. The implemented investments represent 74% of the total targeted investments by the end of June up to EGP 530bn. The private investments also increased by 26% in the first nine months of this fiscal year reaching EGP 226bn compared to EGP 179.4bn in the same period of the last FY 2015/2016. The volume of public investment carried out from July 2016 to March 2017 amounted to EGP 141bn compared to EGP 92.2bn in the same period of last FY, a growth of 53%. The construction sector accounted for the largest percentage of total implemented investments by 18.5%, followed by the utilities sector by 15.3%, extractive activities sector by 13.1%, and manufacturing sector by 11.3%. The total investments in the third quarter of the current FY increased by EGP 40bn to reach EGP 150bn, compared to EGP 110bn in the same period of the last FY 2015/2016, an increase of 36.4%.
