By: Ashraf Sadek March 10, 2018 - President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has stressed the necessity of paying due care to the health, education and infrastructure development projects nationwide in the new State Budget for FY2018/2019 while taking the necessary measures to reduce public debt and increase the monetary reserve. President Sisi's directives to this effect came at a meeting he called yesterday with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Finance Minister Amr el-Garhi and two senior Finance Ministry officials to review the status of the monetary policy and the steps that had been taken to prepare the new State budget. The new budget, the President emphasised, should increase spending on development sectors such as healthcare, education and infrastructure sectors while implementing the structural reforms in the national economy, the Presidency Spokesman Bassam Radi said in a statement. During the meeting, President Sisi also said the new budget should work on increasing investments and reducing deficit and public debt, Ambassador Radi said. In the presentation he made about the status of the economic performance during FY2017/2018, Minister Garhi noted the continuation of improvement in the structure of economic growth, especially with regard to a decrease in the budget deficit between 9.5 and 9.7 per cent against 10.0 per cent in the previous fiscal year thanks to the economic reforms, which had been launched by the government two years ago. He also noted in this context that the measures adopted by the Egyptian government at the level of economic policies continued to yield positive results that included an increase in state revenues and the attraction of fresh investments into the national economy, Ambassador Radi said. Minister el-Garhi said that the increase in the state revenues was directed towards boosting the government's spending on social protection programmes for the limited-income strata against the effects of economic reforms. He added that the draft budget for FY2018/2099 projected an anticipated deficit of 8.5.8 per cent of gross domestic product, compared to 9.7 per cent this year. Minister el-Garhi said that the new draft budget projected a two-per cent surplus in the gross domestic product. The draft also projected a 20% increase in state revenues and a 13.6% decrease in government expenditures, the minister said. It also projected a big increase in expenditures on social welfare programmes to improve the standard of living for those in need, he added.
