Stitching the economy back together: Egyptian garment workers (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt economy grew 2.2 per cent in the 2011/12 financial year that ended 30 June, the country's minister of planning and international cooperation told reporters on Wednesday.
This is a slight improvement on the 1.8 per cent growth the economy recorded in 2010/11.
Analysing the data, planning minister Ashraf El-Araby said that the annual growth in the economy broadly mirrored population growth, meaning that "the average individual income did not improve in 2011/12."
In the fourth quarter of the financial year – April-June 2012 – the economy saw annual growth of 3.3 per cent.
But this relatively high growth rate seems mainly due to the base effect, with the Egyptian economy floundering in the same quarter the year before. In April-June 2011, the economy grew a mild 0.4 per cent.
Ashraf El-Araby went on to predict a 4 per cent growth rate for the current financial year, and 5 per cent in 2014/15.
"We have a plan put in place targeting to double Egypt's GDP by 2020," El-Araby told reporters.
"This why we need to see an average 7.5 per cent growth rate until then."
El-Araby said unemployment in Egypt grew to 12.6 per cent in 2011/12, up from 11.8 in 2010/11.
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