With President Sisi having officially ratified the 2015/2016 budget, which outlines the country’s fiscal policies over the coming year, it is worth taking a look at some of the (highly optimistic) proposals, and analysing how they could possibly be achieved. WHAT ARE THE BUDGET’S KEY POINTS? The three broad “pillars” of the new budget are: reduced public debt, financial stability and confidence and increased spending on public services and development. As part of this, the ministry has set an ambitious target of 5 per cent economic growth for the fiscal year 2015/2016. This is intended to continue rising to 7 per cent for the fiscal year 2018/2019. One of the key concerns of the budget – as expected – is the deficit. The current estimate of Egypt’s deficit for the fiscal year 2015/2016 (Egypt’s fiscal year starts on July 1 and ends on June 30) is EGP 251 billion – 8.9 per cent of the country’s GDP (gross domestic product). The budget outlines the Finance Ministry and Central Bank’s plan to fund the deficit in the first quarter by borrowing EGP 262 billion. The finance ministry also said that 50…
