President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi called for the continuation of the economic reform programme adopted by the government, in order to improve the country's financial and economic indicators, according to Al-Sisi's statements came during a meeting with the Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, and the Minister of Finance Mohamed Moeit on Tuesday. The president emphasized the importance of improving employment and job creation rates, reducing the budget deficit and public debt, and increasing GDP growth. Furthermore, Al-Sisi explained that these improvements across all indicators, which the government is expected to continue to achieve, will provide additional resources to devote to improve the quality of life of the Egyptians, as well as reducing the burden on the society's disadvantaged and the neediest groups. Egypt adopted its economic reform programme in 2016, which included currency flotation, resulting in the pound losing about 50% of its value, implementing the VAT, and reducing energy subsidies. To support the home-grown reforms, the government embarked in November 2016 on an IMF-supported program to restore the stability of its finances, promote growth and employment, while shielding the poor from the adverse effects of the changes. IMF forecast Egypt's to achieve 5.5% GDP growth during the FY2018/19, and 5.9% in FY 2019/20 respectively.
