The Egyptian Minister of Finance, Amr Al-Jarhi, revealed the achievement of the state budget for the first time surplus for more than 10 years, amounted to about 1.9 billion pounds, compared to an initial deficit of 47 billion pounds during the same period of the previous fiscal year.
"The actual results of the general budget for the period between July 2017 and May 2018 confirm a significant and remarkable improvement in financial performance, in general financial indicators, in view of the implementation of the comprehensive economic reform program by the government and in light of improved economic performance indicators," Al-Jarhi said.
He added: "The same period witnessed a marked improvement in the control of the overall budget deficit to 7.8% of GDP compared to 9.3% in the same period last year, compared with an average of 10.6% in the last three years." He stressed that "the financial results for the period July - May confirm the capability of the Ministry of Finance and the Government of Egypt to achieve the financial targets announced and targeted for the fiscal year 2017/2018, represented by the transformation to achieve a first surplus for the first time in decades, 0.1% of GDP, and a total local product deficit 9.8% of GDP, pointing out that “the positive developments of the indicators of the budget and deficit reflects the rise in public revenues significantly during the period from July 2017 to May 2018 to achieve 36%, which exceeded the annual growth rate of public expenditures estimated at 24%.