CAIRO, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Egypt achieved a surplus estimated at 20.8 billion Egyptian pounds (nearly 1.16 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of the fiscal year of 2018-19, official MENA news agency reported on Monday.
The fiscal year in Egypt starts in July and ends in June.
"Egypt has made a preliminary surplus of 20.8 billion pounds which constituted 0.4 percent of the GDP compared with an initial deficit of 0.3 percent for the same period in the previous fiscal year," Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in a statement.
"Egypt adopts currently a policy based on encouraging investment in the substructure to lure private sector to pump funds in vital economic sectors," the statement added.
Maait reiterated a big improvement in some basic economic sectors such as the construction and tourism industry.
He said that Egypt expected the growth rate to reach 5.8 percent in the 2018-19 fiscal year.
The country adopts a strict plan to reduce the debt rates to 93 percent of the GDP in the current fiscal year compared with 108 percent in June 2017 and 98 percent in July 2018, Maait added.
Egypt's economy has been battered by years of turmoil that began after mass protests in 2011.
But the country has been showing signs of recovery in recent months amid tough reforms including cuts in energy subsidies as part of a 12-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund.
