She noted that governmental investments hit 113 billion Egyptian pounds, up by 23 percent in the period from July 2019 to March 2020 before the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis.

The unemployment rate plunged by 7.7 percent from January to March 2020, she said, noting that the flow of foreign direct investments rose by 19 percent from July to December 2019.

She noted that the economic growth hit 5.6 percent in the first half of 2019-2020 and about 5 percent in the third quarter of 2019-2020, but the coronavirus crisis cast its shadow on the economic growth in the fourth quarter.

Saeed said that despite this recession, economic reforms managed to reap their fruits before the crisis and contributed to the economy’s resilience in the face of crises.

This has prompted international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund to expect that Egypt will remain capable of maintaining the positive economic growth rate by 2 percent in 2020, while other institutions were more upbeat about the Egyptian economy.