Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait expected the total budget deficit to decrease to 5.6 percent during the current fiscal year 2022-2023 from 6.1 percent in the previous fiscal year. He also expected the budget deficit to drop to 5 percent in the next fiscal year 2023-2024.
Minister Maait explained that "the budget deficit recorded 6.1 percent of GDP in the last fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2022, with a first surplus for the fifth year in a row that amounted to 100 billion pounds, or 1.3 percent of GDP."
He pointed out that "the debt ratio of the state's general budget bodies to the gross domestic product amounted to 87.2 percent in the last fiscal year, up from 84.6 percent in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, and the debt ratio is expected to decrease to 82.5 percent in the current fiscal year."
Maait revealed that the government will not depend in funding its budget in the future on hot money, explaining that about $15 billion left Egypt during the emerging market crisis in 2018, and nearly $20 billion left the country when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in 2020. He stressed that "the reliance will be on the development of economic activities, especially agriculture, industry, and export."
Source (CNBC Arabic Website, Edited)
