CAIRO, March5, 2018 - Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail met Monday Finance Minister Amr el-Garhi to review the economic indicators during the fiscal year 2017/2018 and the anticipated economic performance through the current fiscal year. Egypt's economic indicators are "very good" and "on track", Minister el-Garhi remarked, adding the figures achieved last February were also very positive. Minister el-Garhi, meanwhile, pointed out that the draft budget 2018/2019 shall be submitted to House of Deputies before the end of March. The draft budget aims to reduce budget deficit to less than 9 per cent, reaching 8.5-8.8 per cent, he stated. "We target primary surplus ranging between 1.8 to 2 per cent of GDP," el-Garhi said. The minister also outlined the key objectives of the draft budget including further pushing the economic wheel forward besides curtailing debt percentage from 97 per cent to 87-88 per cent of the GDP. El-Garhi also pointed out that the prime minister accepted the resignation submitted by Deputy Minister of Finance for Tax policy Amr el-Mounir.
