Egypt’s GDP grew 5.4% in 12 months to June 30: PM

Egypt’s gross domestic product grew by 5.4 percent in the 2017-2018 financial year that ended on June 30, the country’s Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said on Tuesday.

In a televised address to parliament to present his administration’s four-year programme, Madbouly said the government was targeting GDP growth of 8 percent by the 2021-2022 financial year.

Tourism, Suez Canal revenues, and remittances from Egyptians working abroad have risen over the past year, boosting the economy of the most populous country in the Arab World.

Worker remittances rose to $19.37 billion in the nine months until the end of March from $15.89 billion a year earlier, according to central bank figures released on June 28.

Madbouly said annual unemployment at the end of June stood at 10.6 percent and that his government was seeking to bring it down further to 8 percent by financial year 2021-22.

Egypt’s economic growth has deteriorated since a 2011 uprising drove tourists and foreign investors away, drying up foreign reserves. The country’s GDP grew by 4.2 percent in the previous financial year.

Source: Reuters