Cairo - Mubasher: The Egyptian prime minister, Sherif Ismail, said that expected public expenditure in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2017/2018 amounts to EGP 1.2 trillion ($65.09 billion).
Ismail told reporters on Tuesday that the targeted gross domestic product (GDP) is EGP 4.1 trillion.
The Egyptian finance minister, Amr El Garhy, had said before that estimates for the budget deficit went up to 10.2% from 9.8% at the beginning of the year.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) estimates the total budget deficit for FY16/17 to reach EGP 319.46 billion compared to an actual deficit of EGP 339.5 billion in the year before.
Non-petroleum exports increased by 25% in January to $1.66 billion compared to $1.32 billion in the same period the year before, according to the Egyptian minister of trade and industry, Tarek Kabil.
On the other hand, Egyptian imports declined by 25% in January to $3.62 billion, which resulted in a decrease in the trade balance deficit by 44% to $966 million.
The Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a report that trade deficit declined in December 2016 by 40.5% to EGP 2.38 billion, compared to EGP 4 billion in December 2015.
Trade deficit reached $49 billion last fiscal year; however, the government is aiming to reduce it by 500% in FY16/17.
Egypt is targeting foreign direct investments (FDI) of $10 billion in FY16/17, the former minister of investment, Dalia Khorshid, had previously said.
The Ministry of Finance revealed earlier that the budget proposal will be finalised and presented to the Parliament before 31 March.
