CAIRO, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's state revenues grew by 35.5 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, putting the government on track to achieve its budget surplus target of 2 percent of GDP, the finance minister said Friday.
Egypt made a leap in all public balance indicators during the first quarter of the fiscal year 2018/2019, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in a statement.
Egypt's fiscal year runs from July to June.
Egypt's budget deficit in the first quarter of the current fiscal year was down slightly to 1.9 percent of GDP from 2.3 percent in the past three years, the minister said.
The government investments rose 85 percent while tax revenues increased by 39.8 percent, he added.
Maait attributed the positive results to Egypt's economic reforms.
"These positive results in the first quarter of the current fiscal year confirm Egypt's ability to achieve its financial targets for the budget for the current fiscal year," the minister noted.
In 2016, Egypt started a strict three-year economic reform program based on austerity measures including fuel and energy subsidy cuts and tax hikes, after several years of instability that caused an economic recession.
The liberalization of the Egyptian pound exchange rate encouraged the International Monetary Fund to support Egypt's economic reform plan with a 12-billion-U.S.-dollar loan, two thirds of which has already been delivered.
