Egypt: Finance Minister Holds Meeting with EFG-Hermes Investors to Demonstrate

Finance Minister, Mr. Amr Al-Garhy, held a meeting with delegates of EFG-Hermes group taking part in the second annual running of "EFG-Hermes Egypt Day Conference ".

The meeting aimed at building strong relations with different corporations and investment firms and enhancing mutual cooperation among them in all disciplines.

On his part, Mr. Al-Garhy demonstrated to the audience the Egyptian economic reform experience that received appreciation from all the international financial communities.

He further quoted the "positive outlook" rating placed on Egypt by Fitch Ratings agency, as well as Moody's growth expectations to the Egyptian economy to up from 4.2% in 2017 to 5% and 5.5% in 2019 and 2021, respectively.

The noticeable improvement in the Egyptian economy, the consequent flourishing of investment appetite, and the positive budget results of h1 FY 2017/18 are all a manifestation of the uptrend of financial indicators in light of the government-supported economic reform plan, he added.

On the same context, Mr. Al-Garhy underlined that positive financial performance in addition to increases in revenues, in general, and in tax proceeds, in particular, were all accompanied with an improvement in public expenditure in light of increases in allocations to social security programs and to public investments.

Namely, public investments surged by 24% to worth 33.9 billion EGP over h1 FY 2017/18, 28 billion of which are funded through borrowing; thus, effecting a deficit and rendering a growth rate of 19%.

This reflects the government's great willingness to meet substantial needs of the citizens, to increase spending on basic services and to overhaul infrastructure across all the governorates, confirmed the minister.

Moreover, initial budget deficit shrank to 14 billion EGP to represent a ratio of 0.3% to GDP, against 39 billion by 1.1% to GDP compared to the same period last FY. Indeed, this is the least initial budget deficit to be recorded in more than 10 years thanks to the successful financial control over the State general budget, progress achieved in economic and financial reforms, recovery of the economy and regain of investors' confidence, stressed Mr. Al-Garhy.

Mutual funds also contributed greatly in luring direct and indirect investments to the Egyptian economy, added Mr. Al-Garhy, underlining Egypt's plans to attract more investments in all fields.

Mr. Al-Garhy also detailed the government's adopted measures on the legislative and administrative levels to instigate all the economic sectors and to pave the way for more investments.

He highlighted the tangible increase registered in the balance of payments and the balance of trade over last months on the back of the upswing of exports against the dropping of imports.

In the winding up of his meeting with EFG-Hermes delegates, the minister welcomed all prospective investors, stressing the State's efforts to open new markets with more job opportunities and to achieve a growth-hacking investment climate.

Egypt Day Conference seeks to showcase all the promising investment opportunities abound in Egypt - a growing market of interest among the international business communities - in light of the ongoing economic reforms and the expected upward trend of the Egyptian market performance.