IMF: Egypt’s economic growth likely to decrease to 3.3% in 2016

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued its World Economic Outlook (WEO) reports Tuesday forecasting Egypt’s economic growth to decrease to 3.3 percent in 2016, compared to 4 percent in 2015.

“In Egypt, an oil-importing country, growth being expected to decrease to 3.3 percent in 2016 compared to 4 percent in 2015,”

Consumer prices in Egypt are projected to rise by 10.7 percent in 2016, compared to 11 percent in 2015, the report added.

Furthermore, the current account balance in Egypt is expected to increase to 5.3 percent of GDP in 2016 and 2017, compared to 3.7 percent in the current year.

Inflation in Egypt was 11 percent in 2015 and the IMF expects it will decrease to 9.6 percent and 9.5 percent in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

The IMF expects a slight rise in unemployment rate in Egypt, up to 13 percent in 2016 compared to 12.9 percent in 2015, and it is expected to reach 12.4 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, IMF predicted a 3.1 percent growth in emerging markets in the next two years, compared to 2.5 percent in 2015.

The report forecasted a global economic growth of 3.3 percent during 2016. However, in January this fell by 0.2 percent.

The IMF previously projected potential economic growth in the United States at 2.6 percent in January, but decreased to 2.4 percent for the current year in the most recent report.

The IMF expects that Iraq’s current account balance, which was 0.8 percent of GDP in 2015, will rise to 1.2 percent in 2016 and then 0 percent in 2020.