CAIRO, August 11, 2018 (News Wires) - Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maeet has said the government will reduce its public debt to 92 percent of the GDP in the budget of the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2018/2019, the local media reported on Saturday. "The government has enforced package of procedures to reduce the public debt to 92 per cent of the GDP compared with 98 per cent in the previous year," Minister Maeet said in press remarks. The new financial measures intended to increase the state's public revenues and control the government's expenditures, the minister said, adding that the financial performance would be improved after new laws on tariffs and taxes take into effect soon. The government's plans for diversifying the state revenue resource will add 10 billion pounds (56 million US dollars) to the country's treasury. Dr. Waleed Gab-Allah, professor of financial and economic jurisdictions at Cairo University said, "Egypt's economy owns the workforce and the resources but lacks funds, which forced the government to borrow." To compensate for the debt, the government had to reduce its dependence on loans, and increase its revenues, Professor Gab-Allah told Xinhua. Part of the government's economic reforms, which started at the end of 2016, was using part of the surplus of some governmental private funds as public budget instead of carrying it forward to the coming fiscal years balance. The revenues of that surplus be used for creating more jobs along with the country's other assets, the expert added. Professor Gab-Allah expected success for the Finance Ministry's new measures, but believed its application is also associated with the world's fluctuating economy. He added some economic ups and downs, like the increase in the world oil prices last year, had negative impacts on the government plans. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Monday that foreign debt has risen to 88.2 billion dollars at the end of March, with total public debt accounting for 86 per cent of the GDP.
