Egypt is currently engaging in a 46-month loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that charts a map for the Egyptian economy till its conclusion in September 2026.

Ahram Online summaries the key figures, targets, and indices Egypt has attained in FY2023/2024

Goals
 

●      Maximizing available resources and creating financial space to increase spending on human development.

●      The Ministry of Finance will adjust its priorities to ensure public spending is more sensitive to social needs and to contain the impact of economic reforms.

●      Fiscal policies will further support human development, production, and exports.

●      Public investments have declined and the finance ministry is working hard to increase the volume of private investments, especially those directed to industry and exports.

●      Increasing private sector contribution to economic growth.

●      Reducing the debt rate and the finance ministry has a comprehensive program to reduce government debt in the medium term.

●      Reduce the cost of debt, diversify the investor base, currencies and markets, and extend the life of the debt to enhance the degree of confidence in the economy.

●      Maintaining annual primary surpluses and bringing the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio to less than 85 percent by the end of FY2024/2025.

●      The debt service bill remains high due to high inflation and interest rates, with the ministry aiming to reduce it to 35 percent of total expenditures in the medium term.

●      Aim to enter new markets, pay entitlements, and restore Egypt's credit rating to its positive path

Spending
 

●      EGP 500 billion was spent on the first and second phases of the Decent Life presidential initiative, which aims to improve the quality of life for half of the population.

●      Spending on education increased by 25 percent, healthcare by 24 percent, and social protection sector by 20 percent - all surpassing the overall growth rate of expenditures without debt service that remained below 18 percent.

●      Allocations for support and social protection more than doubled from FY2020/2021 to reach EGP 550 billion.

●      Subsidies for petroleum products exceeded EGP 165 billion.

●      Subsidies for food commodities rose to more than EGP 133 billion.

●      Takaful and Karama pensions exceeded EGP 35 billion.

●      Dues to the Social Security and Pensions Fund were paid at approximately EGP 185 billion - raising total payments to EGP 913.2 billion by the end of June 2024.

●      EGP 12.9 billion were spent in support of encouraging exports and EGP 11 billion in support of industrial production.

●      In one year, support for health insurance and medicines for citizens in need increased from EGP 1.9 billion to EGP 3.4 billion.

●      EGP 10.2 billion in support of the low-income social housing program and EGP 3.5 billion to deliver natural gas services to homes.

●      Transport allocation was increased to EGP 8.1 billion to provide passenger transport service at as less than economic cost as possible.

Growth
 

●      Egypt did not impose any new taxes in FY2023/2024; tax revenues increased by 30 percent, which was spent on health, education, and social protection programs.

●      The national revenue grew by 60 percent, which exceeds the expenditure growth rate.

●      Non-tax revenue increased by 190 percent as a result of Egypt diversifying the sources of its resources, most notably the treasury obtaining 50 percent of the $35 billion Ras El-Hekma deal. 

Achievements
 

●      More than 28,000 new cars have been delivered to citizens under the presidential initiative to replace vehicles in a green stimulus package exceeding EGP 718 million.

●      More than 3,000 companies have benefited from export support worth EGP 65 billion since October 2019.

●      2,527 investors benefited from the initiative to support productive sectors, worth about EGP 80 billion, while the treasury bore the difference in interest rates.

●      The Ministry of Finance rationalized spending by 2.2 percent of the GDP, reduced budget deficit to 3.6 percent, and achieved a primary surplus of 6.1 percent, including the revenues from the Ras El-Hekma project.

●      The comprehensive digital transformation of the tax administration has helped the ministry expand the tax base and include new financiers.

●      The rate of internal debt to the budget agencies decreased by 4.7 percent of the GDP despite the difficult economic conditions.

●      The balance of the external debt of budget agencies declined by over $3.5 billion by the end of June 2024, a decrease of more than 4 percent compared to June 2023.

●      12.7 years is the average lifespan of the external debt of the budget agencies by the end of June 2024

●      The yields on international bonds in the secondary market decreased by 6 percent for 3-year bonds and 3.1 percent for 5-year bonds compared to their prices in February.

●      The rates for insurance against default risks decreased by 224 points for 5-year terms and 168 points for 10-year terms.

●      Issuance of Chinese Panda Bonds and Japanese Samurai Bonds at very low costs

●      Activating the government securities market and automating and developing financial and tax settlement systems.

●      The cost of debt has begun to decline.