CAIRO- Egypt reduced its GDP growth target for the current fiscal year 2019-20 to 5.1% from 5.6%, Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed said on Thursday, amid the coronavirus crisis.

The North African country also is targeting growth of 4.5% in FY 2020-21 but it could dip to 3.5% if the crisis lasts until mid-year, she added.

Inflation is expected to rise to 9.8% if the coronavirus crisis continues until Dec. 2020, the middle of next FY, on the back of high demand on some products like medical supplies and detergents, she said after a cabinet meeting held by video conference.

The cabinet said in separate statement that it approved the draft law of the FY 2020-21 budget with expected deficit of 6.3%.

(Reporting by Momen Saied Atallah, writing by Nadine Awadalla and Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by Toby Chopra) ((mahmoud.mourad@thomsonreuters.com;))