CAIRO - Egypt's economy grew by 7.8% in the nine-month period to March 2022, far outpacing the 1.9% GDP growth recorded in the same period a year earlier, when the nation's output was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a minister said on Wednesday.

The economy grew 5.4% in the Jan-March quarter, a government statement cited Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed as telling a cabinet meeting. Egypt's fiscal year starts on July 1.

The unemployment rate in the Jan-March 2022 quarter dropped to 7.2%, from 7.4% in same quarter a year earlier, she added.

(Reporting by Momen Atallah, writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Toby Chopra)