Fitch bullish on Egypt’s economy but trims again 2021 GDP growth to 3%

According to Fitch Solutions’ insights, Egypt is among ten other countries to see positive growth over 2021 helped by the upcoming vaccine rollout and continued public investment. However, the rating house downgraded the country’s GDP growth for the financial year 2020/2021 to come in at 3 percent, slightly below the 3.3 percent it predicted in November.

Egypt will do “reasonably well over the coming quarters” after experiencing a “relatively shallow” contraction during the covid-19 lockdown in 2Q2020, said Andrine Skjelland, head of MENA country risk at Fitch Solutions, during a webinar yesterday.

This will be supported by what Fitch expects in its latest MENA macroeconomic update, to be a “relatively fast vaccine rollout,” sizable government investment in the transport, IT and construction sectors, and growing demand for exports from the EU.

It also said that moderate inflation and falling interest rates will further help to facilitate upticks in private investment and consumption.