Egypt achieves primary surplus of in 9 months

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Egypt has recorded a primary surplus of EGP 416 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2023/2024, amounting to 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP), Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait revealed in a statement on April 8th.

This marks an improvement from EGP 50 billion in the nine-month period of FY 2022/2023, which accounted for 0.5% of the GDP, Maait added.

The state's public revenues soared to EGP 1.453 trillion, marking a staggering 57.1% growth over the corresponding period a FY earlier, he pointed out.

This has been fueled by a remarkable increase of 122.9% in non-tax revenues and 41.2% in tax revenues, due to the mechanization of works and expanding the tax base without imposing additional burdens on citizens, the minister highlighted.

These figures are accompanied by a climb in public expenditures, which reached EGP 2.323 trillion, reflecting an annual growth rate of 50.8% over the July 2023-March 2024 period, he added.

Despite the uptick in expenditures, Egypt has managed to maintain the stability of its overall deficit rate, which stood at 5.42% of GDP, a slight increase from 5.40% during the same period in FY 2022/2023, according to Maait.

The government has prioritized key sectors, allocating EGP 180 billion to the education sector and EGP 125 billion to the health sector in the first nine months of FY 2023/2024, he said.

The state's general treasury disbursed EGP 135 billion towards insurance and pension fund dues and EGP 69 billion to bolster support for essential food commodities during the period from July 2023 to March 2024.