CAIRO, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian parliament approved on Monday the largest state budget in the history of Egypt, recording 1.575 trillion Egyptian pounds (94.3 billion U.S. dollars) for the 2019/2020 fiscal year.
The budget is expected to achieve an initial surplus of 35 billion Egyptian pounds for the first time in 15 years, according to official MENA news agency.
The cash deficit is also set to hit 440 billion pounds in the new fiscal year, while the total deficit would record 445 billion pounds.
The draft budget targets a growth rate of approximately 6 percent, compared to 5.6 percent this year, as well as a decline in the unemployment rate to 9.1 percent.
Total investments of nearly 1.17 trillion pounds are also targeted in the new budget.
Egypt's economy has been battered by years of turmoil following the 2011 popular uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt adopted a strict three-year economic reform program since late 2016, starting with local currency floatation to contain dollar shortage followed by austerity measures, energy subsidy cuts and tax increases.
The liberalization of the Egyptian pound's exchange rate encouraged the International Monetary Fund to support Egypt's economic reform plan by a 12-billion-dollar loan.
