EGP 7bn initial surplus in 10M current FY: El-Garhy Government aims to achieve initial surplus of 2% of GDP, reduce budget deficit to 8.5% of GDP next FY, finance minister says
Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said that during the first 10 months (10M) of the current fiscal year (FY), the state budget achieved an initial surplus of about 0.2% of GDP, equivalent to EGP 7bn, for the first time in 15 years. The announcement was made during the president's meeting on Saturday with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla, El-Garhy, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk, and the acting head of the General Intelligence Service, Abbas Kamel. "During the meeting, El-Garhy presented to President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Saturday the results of the financial performance during the first ten months, pointing out that the budget deficit fell to 9.8% of GDP compared to 10.9% in the previous year," according to a statement issued by the presidency. The minister attributed the budget surplus to an increase of 35% in public revenue to reach EGP 578bn, through an increase in tax revenues of 45% to reach EGP 471bn during 10M FY 2017. Presidency spokesperson Bassam Rady said that the president discussed the draft of the state budget for the coming FY 2018/2019. In that regard, the minister pointed out that the government aims to achieve an initial surplus of 2% of GDP and reduce the budget deficit to 8.5% of GDP. El-Garhy stressed that the new state budget targets increasing spending on basic services and infrastructure development in all governorates, as well as increasing social protection allocations directed to citizens most in need.
