Egypt's planning minister Ashraf El-Arabi said on Tuesday that he expects GDP growth for the first fiscal quarter of 2015-2016 to be less than 5 percent, and that the government would look to push the budget deficit below 10 percent within the next two fiscal years.

Egypt will also establish a company with capital of 8 billion Egyptian pounds by the end of December to reclaim 1.5 million feddans (1.56 million acres) of desert, the minister said in an interview with Reuters.