CAIRO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The accelerating pace of the economy in Egypt, which has exceeded the government's goal, is considered by economists as a successful outcome from the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and endeavor on restarting the economy.
In the first half of the fiscal year 2021-2022 (which lasted from July 2021 to December 2021), Egypt's Gross Domestic Production (GDP) increased 9 percent, the highest record since the beginning of 2000, compared to 1.3 percent in the same period the previous year, the government said in a statement last week.
The statement added that Egypt's economy will keep its momentum throughout the year, with an annual GDP growth rate between 6.2 to 6.5 percent.
The fiscal year in Egypt begins in July.
"It proved the success of measures taken by Egypt to deal with the repercussions of the COVID-19," said Waleed Gaballah, professor of financial and economic jurisdictions at Cairo University.
The Egyptian government has taken several decisions regulating social distancing, providing vaccines, and developing the health system, along with providing incentive packages to some impacted sectors, pumping large government investments, and expanding national projects in many fields.
Moreover, the rise in the Suez Canal revenues and remittances of Egyptian expats contributed to raising the growth average and supported Egypt's foreign currency reserve, Gaballah added.
In 2021, the Suez Canal hit record annual revenues in its history of 6.3 billion U.S. dollars, according to the chairman of the Canal Authority Osama Rabie.
Meanwhile, the remittances of Egyptians abroad during the first ten months of 2021 recorded nearly 26.4 billion dollars, with a 7.8 percent rise compared to the same period in 2020.
Creating job opportunities is the most important outcome of achieving a large growth rate, he added, noting that current unemployment rates hit 7.4 percent compared to 12 percent during the political turmoil.
Gaballah added that reaching 9 percent in the first half of 2022 is also driven by the tremendous momentum of successive structural reforms.
In 2021, the Egyptian government launched the "National Program for Structural Reforms," the second phase of the 2016 economic reform program, which aims to develop sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, communication and information technology.
Kareem Al-Omda, a professor of the economy with the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, said the Egyptian economy was "greatly shrunk in 2020-2021 due to COVID-19."
"Restoring the economic activities in the current fiscal year helped in rising the economic growth," he said.
But the Egyptian economy has not fully recovered and needs several more years, Al-Omda said, adding that "nevertheless, Egypt was among the least countries that have been harmed by the pandemic." ■