Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt managed to achieve positive economy growth amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, while most countries in the world are witnessing an economic downturn, the Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, said.
The most populous Arab nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.6% during the crisis, which has been largely commended by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Maait noted in a statement on Sunday.
This came during the minister’s participation in three meetings with senior officials of HSBC and Standard Chartered as well as foreign investors as part of the IMF’s fall meetings.
He further revealed that the country’s inflation rate slowed down to 4.2% at the end of June 2020, compared to 8% in June 2019.
The overall budget deficit represented 7.9% of GDP in fiscal year 2019/2020, compared to 8.2% in FY18/19.
The country also achieved a primary surplus of 1.8% of GDP, despite the economic repercussions of the pandemic.
The North African nation reduced its local debt to 87% of GDP at the end of June, compared to 90.4% in June 2019 and 108% in June 2017.
