Egypt's Economic Growth Records 5.6% in H1

Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development said that the Egyptian economy is still maintaining stable growth rates of 5.6 percent during the first half of the fiscal year 2019/20 despite the continued slowdown in global growth.

This came during the weekly cabinet meeting, during which a number of issues of public concern at the economic, social and developmental level were discussed.

In a statement on Wednesday, El-Said explained that the high rate of economic growth during the H1, H2 FY 2019/20 was driven by the growth of the oil refining sector, communications and construction as well as the continued growth of the tourism sector.

It is noteworthy that the growth rate of Egypt's economy increased during FY 2018/19 to reach 5.6 %, compared to 5.2 %  during the previous fiscal year.

Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait expected his country's economy to grow between 5.8-5.9 % by the end of the current fiscal year, compared to 6% that Egypt expected to achieve when preparing the budget project.

The Minister of Planning indicated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reduced its forecasts for the global growth rate for the third time from 3.6 % in April 2019 to 3.3 % in January 2020.

Moreover a number of organizations also expected a drop in the global growth rate by 0.3 percent this year due to the spread of the deadly coronavirus.