Fitch Solutions: Egypt’s real GDP growth seen growing to 5% in FY22, 5.5% in FY23

Egypt’s real GDP growth is projected to surge to 5 percent in the current financial year 2021/2022 that ends in June next year, Fitch Solutions said in a recent report.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) of the Arab world’s most populous country is also seen growing 5.5 percent in the financial year 2022/2023 ending on June 30, 2023, Fitch further said.

In its recent Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region monthly outlook report, Fitch projects Egypt’s real GDP to reach 3.1 percent in 2021 — on an annual basis — while average inflation is expected to hit 5.1 percent during the same year.

“Egypt is a regional bright spot despite the slow vaccine rollout. The Egyptian economy is one of the few globally to have grown on an annual basis in the past year despite the COVID-19 crisis, meaning that the economy will far exceed its pre-pandemic size in 2021,” Fitch report read.

Fitch also predicted Egypt’s interest rate to average at 9.25 percent and the US dollar to be traded at 16.20 Egyptian pounds.

It further said that despite the slow start of the vaccine rollout, Egypt continues to impose fairly mild restrictions that will cause fewer disruptions to regular business activity.

“Meanwhile, fixed investments will benefit from a large project pipeline funded by both the public and private sectors. Indeed, the FY2021/2022 budget boosted capital expenditures by 60 percent,”