CAIRO - Egypt's government will raise state pensions by 15 percent from April, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) cited the prime minister as saying on Saturday. "Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq issued a decision to increase the social security pension by 15 per cent as of April 1," MENA said. The government already announced plans for additional spending in the wake of a political upheaval that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. It brought forward by three months a bonus it gives each year to civil servants, equal this year to 15 per cent of their salaries, Finance Minister Samir Radwan told Reuters this week. He said the government will pay for the additional spending by taking funds from other parts of the budget. Egypt had predicted a deficit of 7.9 per cent of gross domestic product for fiscal 2010/11 but has now revised that up to 8.2-8.4 per cent.
