Egypt Has to Undergo ‘Faltering’ Stage Before Restoring High Growth Rates
Egypt will be seeing a stage of an economic unsteadiness before being able to recover and restore high growth rates like before, the Egyptian Minister of Finance Dr. Ahmed Galal said in a keynote speech at Euromoney’s 19th Annual Conference in Cairo on Monday.
The current government is aiming to remove all the obstacles in the way of the investors who are trying to develop businesses in Egypt, the Minister added. Therefore, the government will be focusing on supporting service and infrastructure enterprises as pursuant to its recently-announced economic stimulus plan which worth EGP 30 billion.
Minister Galal further noted that the current government is working on developing a set of social and service programs that will positively affect the citizens, such as the application of the minimum wage. The impact of the government’s upcoming social and service programs is expected to show up within few months.
Moreover, the minister revealed that the recent coordination between the Egyptian government and the banking sector has resulted in removing the currency black market as well as lowering the interest rates by 4% to reach around 10%.
The Finance Minister also referred that the government is seeking to accelerate the implementation of the value added tax (VAT) as for being the most equitable tax system, compared to the existing sales tax system. The Egyptian Finance Ministry is undergoing a tax reform program, in accordance with the government’s scheme to adopt economic and social reforms.
