Egypt House passes FY2020-2021 budget with bigger allocations for health, education

The House of Representatives approved in a plenary session the state’s budget for FY2020-2021 increasing the total amount allocated to health and education by 43 percent year on year.

The parliament has left the draft largely unchanged from a draft released by the Finance Ministry in April, the ministry said in a statement.

Health + education spending meet constitutional requirements

The ministry had previously allocated 255  billion pounds for health (now 258.5 billion pounds, according to final figures) and 423  billion pounds for education, higher education, and scientific research (now 424 billion pounds). This means the total amount allocated to health and education has increased by 43 percent y-o-y from 545 billion pounds in FY 2019-2020.

The final allocation fulfills a quota mandated by the constitution, which requires an allocation equal to 10 percent of GDP for health- and education-related spending, the ministry said in its statement.

The budget is due to be revised once 1Q2020-2021 wraps on 30 September, the ministry said. The ministry had made it clear last month that it plans to further tweak key assumptions of the budget as it gets more clarity on the road ahead.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is due to ratify the budget before the start of the fiscal year on 1 July.