Egypt's budget deficit drops to 5.6% in 10M of FY 2018/19

According to the financial report, the overall deficit declined as a result of the higher growth rate in revenues than the growth rate of expenditures

Egypt's budget deficit fell to 5.6% of GDP in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2018/19, compared to 6.7% during the same period of last FY, according to the ministry of finance's financial report of May issued on Friday.

Notably, the ministry of finance aims to achieve a budget deficit of EGP 438.6bn in the current FY, representing 8.4% of GDP, compared to 9.7% of GDP during FY 2017/18, and it also aims to make the budget deficit decline to 7.1% by next FY.

According to the financial report, the overall deficit declined as a result of the higher growth rate in revenues than the growth rate of expenditures.

Furthermore, it explained that the state revenues increased by 18.8% during the first 10 months of the current FY, recording EGP 686.78bn, up from EGP 577.78bn during the same period from the last FY.

Meanwhile, the report disclosed that the expenditures rose by 13% during the aforementioned period, reaching EGP 982.45bn.

"The revenues represent 13% of GDP during the first 10 months of the current FY, while the expenditures represent 18.7% of GDP," according to the report.

The report mentioned that Egypt achieved an initial surplus of EGP 54.8bn during the period from July 2018 to April 2019, representing 1.04% of GDP, compared to an initial surplus of EGP 6.7bn during the same period last FY.
According to the ministry of finance, this initial surplus was achieved on a regular monthly basis from August 2018 to date.

The report also showed that the debt interest increased by 15.4% during the first 10 months of the current FY, reaching EGP 351.3bn, compared to EGP 304.3bn in the same period last FY.