Staff report: Cairo, July 5, 2018 - President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Thursday approved a LE1.7 trillion state budget for the Fiscal Year 2018/2019 after it had been ratified by the House of Deputies (Egyptian parliament). The new budget, the largest in Egypt's modern history, was put into effect last Sunday. In a related development, the Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maeet, told reporters on Thursday that the government achieved a primary budget surplus of 0.2 per cent in FY 2017-2018. The government expects the budget deficit to stand at 9.8 per cent, the minister said. The surplus amount came to LE4 billion ($223 million), Minister Maait said. The 9.8 per cent budget deficit figure for FY 2017-2018 is slightly higher than the 9.1 per cent the government said last year it would target. Egypt's fiscal year runs from July to June. Minister Maeet said revenues expected from the FY 2018-2019 budget were around LE989 billion ($55 billion), LE817 billion of which would be spent on debts and interest.
