Discover Fastest-Growing Sectors During the 3rd Quarter of Current Fiscal Year

The Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation announced an increase in Egypt's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate during the third quarter of fiscal year 2024/2025, reaching 4.77%. 

This compares to a growth rate of 2.2% in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year, marking the highest quarterly growth rate achieved in three years.

This performance contributes to raising the average growth rate during the first nine months of the current fiscal year to approximately 4.2%, compared to about 2.4% during the same period of the previous fiscal year. It also reflects a sustained recovery and increasing resilience of the economy in the face of global uncertainty.

This growth occurred amid the government's continued implementation of its reform agenda, as part of the National Structural Reforms Program. This program is a fundamental factor in maintaining macroeconomic stability, improving the governance of public investments, and enhancing the economy's competitiveness by bolstering the private sector's role in various productive areas.

The growth witnessed in the third quarter was evident in the continued recovery of the non-petroleum manufacturing sector, which achieved a growth rate of 16.03% during the third quarter of fiscal year 2024/2025 compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, when the activity recorded a contraction of 3.96%.

This notable growth in the third quarter coincides with the state's keenness to intensify investments in the industrial sector, as it is a priority sector in the National Structural Reforms Program. Non-petroleum manufacturing activity was the largest contributor to GDP growth during the quarter, with its contribution reaching 1.9 percentage points out of the total growth of 4.77%.

The growth in industrial activity resulted from an increase in industrial production, which was clearly reflected in the growth of the Manufacturing Production Index (excluding crude oil and petroleum products), averaging 16.03% during the third quarter of fiscal year 2024/2025. Industries such as automobiles, ready-made garments, beverages, paper manufacturing, and textiles achieved growth rates of 93%, 58%, 34%, 20%, and 17% respectively.

Several other economic activities achieved positive growth rates during the third quarter of fiscal year 2024/2025. In this regard, tourism (restaurants and hotels) activity recorded a growth of 23%, with the number of tourists increasing to 3.94 million during the third quarter of the current fiscal year, compared to 3.79 million tourists in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. The number of tourist nights also rose to 40.97 million nights compared to 33.17 million nights in the corresponding quarter of the fiscal year.

Furthermore, the communications and information technology sector achieved a growth rate of 14.7% during the third quarter of fiscal year 2024/2025. This coincided with the launch of the Wi-Fi Calling service in January 2025 to enhance call quality in areas with weak coverage, as well as the construction of over 3,000 mobile towers during 2024, as part of a plan targeting coverage of all highways and "Haya Karima" initiative villages by mid-year.

Digital financial services also saw significant expansion; the number of e-wallets increased by 31% during the third quarter of 2024/2025 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2023/2024, reaching 43.7 million wallets. The number of financial transactions executed through them increased by 61%, and the total value of these transactions rose by 63% to record EGP 859.2 billion.

On the other hand, some other sectors recorded negative growth rates during the third quarter of fiscal year 2024/2025. Among these activities is the Suez Canal activity, which contracted by 23.1%. However, this rate of contraction is decreasing compared to the corresponding quarter, when the activity contracted by 51.6% due to the onset of the crisis involving a decline in the number of ships passing through the Suez Canal. This was attributed to geopolitical tensions that have negatively impacted the canal's revenues so far. In this context, the Canal's revenues declined by 19% to $0.90 billion in the current quarter compared to approximately $1.1 billion in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. Similarly, the output of the extractive sector continued to decrease, contracting by 10.38% as a result of the contraction in both oil and natural gas activities during the third quarter of fiscal year 2024/2025.