Today, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Finance Dr. Mohamed Maait and Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies Ahmed Kouchouk.
The Spokesman for the Presidency, Counselor Dr. Ahmed Fahmy, said the meeting reviewed the draft budget for the fiscal year 2024/2025. Minister of Finance Dr. Maait presented the key final indicators of the draft budget, which is based on achieving a growth rate of 4% of the Gross Domestic Product. It will also witness the achievement of an initial surplus of 3.5% and the reduction of the total deficit in the medium-term to 6% of the GDP, in addition to the growth of revenues in the state’s general budget by almost 36% to reach 2.6 trillion Egyptian pounds and the growth of public expenditures of the state’s general budget by 29% to amount to 3.9 trillion Egyptian pounds. This is also in addition to allocating 575 billion Egyptian pounds for wages and 636 billion Egyptian pounds for subsidies, grants and social benefits, including 144 billion pounds for basic food supplies and 154 billion pounds to subsidize petroleum products, as a result of the rise in oil prices globally and the impact of the change in the exchange rate, which is considered a major challenge to the state’s public finance. This is also in addition to the allocation of more than 40 billion pounds for “Takaful and Karama,” as well as increasing allocations for health and education by 30%, being a “presidential priority” to complete the strategy of building the Egyptian person during the upcoming budgets, starting with the budget for the fiscal year 2024/2025.
Dr. Maait noted that for the first time this year, the concept of the general government budget will be introduced in a way that helps explain the true capabilities of the state’s public finance according to an objective reading that reflects the entire revenues and expenditures of the state and its public bodies. He further explained that the budget of the “general government” will be presented in the fiscal year 2024/2025. It includes the state’s general budget and the budgets of 40 economic bodies, as a first phase, bringing the total revenues of the general government budget to 4 trillion pounds, while the total expenditures amount to 4.9 trillion pounds.
President El-Sisi gave directives, in this context, to continue maintaining financial discipline and ensuring the financial sustainability of the state’s general budget, in addition to continuing to take all the necessary measures to reduce the public budget debt and its service burdens.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Presidency of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
