Minister of Planning Hala El-Saeed said on Wednesday that Egypt's economic growth rate remained stable, reaching 5.6% during the first quarter of this fiscal year.
This came during a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to review economic performance during Q1 FY 2019-20.
El-Saeed added that Egypt's growth rate was one of the highest in the Middle East and North Africa at a time when global growth rates had slowed by 3% in 2019 and and an estimated 3.4% for 2020, noting that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) data indicates a 5.9% growth rate in Egypt by 2020.
"Five sectors mainly have contributed to the economic growth, including internal trade, agriculture, real estate development, industry and communication," the minster pointed out, adding that these sectors contributed to 56% of the Gross National Product (GNP), besides communication, construction, tourism, the Suez Canal, natural gas and industry that recorded the highest growth rates during the same period.
She noted that public investments reached around EGP 87 billion with a 9% growth rate including governmental investments worth EGP 25 billion, with an increase of 20%.
She reviewed indices on the labor market and unemployment, pointing out that the unemployment rate in Egypt dropped to 7.5% during Q4 FY 2018-19, compared with around 9.9% in the same quarter the previous year.
"Construction, industry and transport were among the biggest contributors to the reduction in unemployment," she concluded
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