On Monday afternoon, the Egyptian parliament approved the country’s new budget and sustainable development plan set for the fiscal year 2019/2020. While the total amount of the budget was not revealed, here are the major take-aways: Egypt aims to reduce the budget deficit of the gross domestic product (GDP) to 7.2 percent, which is EGP 445.1 billion, as opposed to the 8.4 percent of the current fiscal year. The country also aims to increase the GDP by six percent, with its projected expenditure amounting to EGP 1.574 trillion. The debt for local and foreign loans will amount to the highest percentage of the expenditures budget, which is around 36 percent, totaling EGP 569 billion. This is around a 6.5 percent increase from the current budget. The public salaries and wages will increase by 11.5 percent equating to EGP 301 billion. “This means an increase of EGP 31 billion from last year,” the report said. It is worth noting that “the allocations earmarked for social protection measures are estimated to be EGP 327.7 billion (5.3 percent of GDP) compared to EGP 328.2 billion last year, or a drop of EGP 592…
