Egypt redefines its economic growth forecast to 5.7% in 2021-2022

CAIRO - 28 March 2022: Egypt has lowered its economic growth forecast for the current fiscal year 2021-2022 to 5.7 percent, from a previous forecast of 6.4 percent as a result of the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, according to the Planning Minister Hala El-Said.

El-Said added that the growth rate in Egypt amounted to 9 percent in the first half of the fiscal year.

“We expected that the growth for the whole year would reach 6.4 percent, but the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and its effects on inflation and global growth were also reflected on us, and therefore we expect that our growth rate will slow down, so that by the end of the year, we will register a growth of 5.7 percent,” the minister told Bloomberg Asharq.

Earlier, El-Said said that the real economy growth rate is planned to reach 5.5 percent during the 2022/2023 fiscal year, which is less than the rate expected before the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

Egypt was aiming at the beginning of the current fiscal year to achieve economic growth at 5.7 percent, then it raised its expectations to 6 percent, and at a later stage to 6.4 percent, to return today under the weight of the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and restore its growth expectations as they were at the beginning of the year.

The minister indicated that her country is focusing on expanding the size of the real economy, i.e. industry, agriculture, communications and information technology, as "the government aims to raise their percentage together to 35 percent of the economy."