CAIRO, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Egypt GDP growth rate is prospected to climb to 5.5 percent in the short term of the fiscal year 2020-2021 that started in July, said the country's ministry of finance in a statement on Thursday.
"Egypt seeks to achieve the economic and financial targets and record initial surplus despite the domestic and foreign challenges caused by the crisis of COVID-19," the statement said.
Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait explained that the implementation of large developmental projects has created new job opportunities, promoted the climate for luring foreign investments in a way that maximized the production capabilities, increased the GDP rate, and reduced the budget deficit and the public debt.
He added that keeping Egypt's rating at B2 with a stable outlook by Moody's Investors Service "is a certificate of confidence that reflects the government capability for adopting successful financial and economic policies that enabled the economy to cope with foreign and domestic challenges and shocks."
Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala al-Saeed highlighted that the volume of governmental investments has recorded a growth of 26 percent in the fiscal year 2019-2020 in the sectors of education, health, transportation, housing, communication, industry and irrigation.
She added that the non-oil export revenues in the previous fiscal year were the largest in 10 years, noting that the trade deficit has declined by 5.4 percent in the first nine months of that year due to the rise of exports in general by 0.5 percent.
Moody's report came a day after the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said that Egypt paid off 6.8 billion U.S. dollars in debt during the first quarter of 2020.
Egypt's foreign debts stood at 111.29 billion U.S. dollars by the end of March, according to the CBE. Enditem
