The Egyptian Ministry of Finance revealed in the publication of the general budget preparation 2021-2022 that the government aims to reduce the total deficit to 6.5 percent of GDP. Egypt expects to reduce the overall deficit for the 2020-2021 budget to 7.5 percent from 7.9 percent during the previous fiscal year, and an initial surplus of 0.5 percent. The Egyptian government is also targeting an unemployment rate of 6 percent during the fiscal year 2021-2022. Note that the unemployment rate declined to 7.3 percent during the third quarter of 2020, compared to 7.8 percent a year ago.
The government is targeting an average interest rate on government bills at 13 percent in the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget from the 13.5 percent expected in 2020-2021. The government expects government debt to rise to 88 percent of GDP in the fiscal year 2021-2022, from the expected 83 percent in the current fiscal year.
The government is also targeting an inflation rate of 9% in 2021-2020, with an increase or decrease of 3%, compared with the expected 5.7% in the current fiscal year 2020-2021. Urban consumer price inflation rose to 4.5 percent year-on-year in October from 3.7 percent in September.
The Ministry of Finance did not publish the real growth rate of the economy expected in 2021-2022, indicating that the preparation is underway by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, while Egypt expects an economic growth rate of 3.3% in the current fiscal year.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net, Edited)
