IDSC Calls for Diversifying Financing Instruments

Egypt’s cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) has organized a series of workshops in an effort to explore practical ways to respond to the economic challenges facing Egypt.

During these workshops, IDSC called for expanding the tax base, diversifying financing instruments, and accelerating efforts of engaging the informal activities in the formal sector as key elements for the Egyptian economy to navigate the current economic challenges.

Speaking during the 12th workshop, Non-Executive Chairman of Commercial International Bank Sherif Samy stated that there is a need to continue the steps of structural reform of the Egyptian economy to deal with the decline in capital inflows amid the interest rates hike in the US.

Meanwhile, Head of the Department of Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University Nagwa Samak stressed the importance of the export and production sectors in reducing the debt burdens and inflation , as well as in achieving real GDP growth.

In turn, Director of the Egypt Center for Economic and Strategic Studies Mostafa Abu Zeid indicated that integrating the informal activities into the formal economy is necessary in order to raise the GDP growth, along with tax and administrative reforms.

Senior Economist at the Macro Fiscal Policies Unit of the Ministry of Finance Mostafa Kotby revealed that Egypt is trying to reduce public debt and diversify finance sources.

“We aim to continue to extend the debt maturity to 3-4 years by the end of June 2023 and to reduce the volume of debt to GDP ratio by 2026 to below 80 percent. We also target increasing budget revenues during 2023 by 18 percent,” Kotby said.