Browsing: Egypt

Egypt aims to increase its agricultural production by 30 percent by 2024 and increase the gross domestic product of its agricultural sector to 12 percent in the same period.

According to Hala El-Said, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development the sector will create job opportunities and increase small farmers income while increasing the country’s exports in agriculture. The agriculture sector will double its export shares to 25 per cent in 2024 from 17 per cent in 2020.

El-Said was speaking during a high-level dialogue on food security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hosted by the World Bank entitled “Food Security in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis: Pathways from crisis to recovery.”

The minister said that the agro-food sector incorporates food processing and agriculture as well as related inputs and trade. The agro-food sector makes up around 23.2 per cent of the added value labour …

Egypt’s economy is expected to grow by 2.3 percent in the 2020/2021 fiscal year from the previous project of 3.7 percent in January 2021 according to the World Bank’s Economic Prospects report June 2021.

According to the report, In the 2021/2022 fiscal year Egypt is expected to see further growth rise to 4.5 per cent down from 5.8 percent in the January report, which is a decrease of 1.3percent. In the Fiscal year 2022/2023, the report projects a growth rise of 5.5 percent.

According to the World Bank, in the first half of 2021 Egypt’s economy remained sluggish despite the relaxation of lockdown restrictions. Following unprecedented support in 2020, fiscal policy is expected to be less accommodative in 2021 while the average primary fiscal deficit is expected to be about 4 percent of GDP which is about two thirds its level in 2020.

“The scope for further financial support is …

Remittance flows to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region increased by 2.3 per cent to record about $5.6 billion in 2020 according to a report by World Bank.

The press release from World Bank noted that strong remittance flows to Morocco and Egypt strongly contributed to the growth.

In 2020, flows to Morocco rose to 6.5 per cent while flows to Egypt rose by 11 percent to record a high of nearly $20 billion. Tunisia also recorded an increase of 2.5 per cent.

According to the statement, other economies in the region experienced losses in the same period such as Iraq, Lebanon, Djibouti and Jordan which led to a double-digit decline.

With weak outflows from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and moderate growth in the Euro area, remittances are likely to grow in 2021 by 2.6 percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2020 the cost of sending …

Egyptian start-ups are to benefit from two funds that have been raised early this month from Sawari Ventures which has raised $69 million and $90 million from Algebra ventures.

Algebra Venture an Egyptian venture capital firm announced the launch of its $90 million second fund yesterday after it closed its first fund of $54 million four years ago. Come the close of the second fund, the firm hopes to have raised a total of $144 million, with the first fund closing in the third quarter of 2021. If the venture capital achieves its target, it will most likely have the largest indigenous fund from North Africa.

Tarek Assaad and Karim Hussein, Algebra venture managing directors said that the first fund was mainly focused on Egypt while the second fund will also be focused on Egypt while allocating investments in East and West Africa, Middle East and North Africa. The …

Egypt’s tourism revenues fell by 67.2% due to COVID-19 in 2020 after recording $13 billion in 2019 when Egypt received 13 million international tourists; in 2020 it received 9.5 million. 

Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities minister Khaled Al-Anani said, “We witnessed a great year in 2019 in terms of numbers and revenues, and the first two months in 2020 were 8% higher, with 2.4 million tourists. The goal now is not to measure the number of tourists, but to say Egypt is a safe tourist destination even amid the coronavirus crisis.” 

He added that a total of 65% of tourists in 2020 did so in January and February.  

With the outbreak in March, Egypt closed its hotels but reopened them after two months with about 25% maximum occupancy later increasing it to 50%…

United States (US) investments in Egypt totals to $21.8 billion over the past 12 months according to

US investments in Egypt totalled $21.8 billion over the past 12 months according to Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Nevine Gamea.  The investments are in sectors such as tourism, agriculture, service, industrial, construction, telecommunications and information technology. 

The minister also added that the trade exchange between the US and Egypt reached $8.618 billion in 2019 compared to $7.53 billion in 2018. 

Gamea’s remarks came during a meeting with a delegation from the US Department of State headed by Keith Krach, Under-Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment who were in the country to discuss joint economic cooperation. 

She also noted that economic relations between the two countries are strategic, based on a long history of joint cooperation in various commercial, industrial and investment fields …

Google has launched a programme to support Egypt’s digital transformation through a $9m technological training programme according to Hisham Al-Nazer, Director of Google Egypt.

The director said that the moves come at a time when covid-19 pandemic has changed the mode of doing business with people turning to the internet to either buy or sell products and services.

While launching the program, Al-Nazer noted that during the period from March to September 2020, Internet search rates increased by about 43 per cent.

The training is expected to benefit more than one million companies and individuals through the learning of digital skills and develop their businesses before the end of 2021.

He added that Google will secure about  $9 million in funding and advertisements as grants to governments and companies while a total of $4 million has been allocated in the form of financial grants and loans to help small companies.…

Egypt maintained its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 3.6 per cent during the last fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, despite the economic challenges presented by the pandemic, according to Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait.

The minister’s remarks came during his participation in virtual meetings organised by Bank of America during the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) fall meetings.

Minister Maait said that Egypt was able to reduce its deficit–to-GDP ratio to 7.9 per cent in FY 2019/20, compared to the 8.2 per cent recorded in FY 2018/19.

At the end of June 2020, Egypt also achieved a primary surplus of 1.8 per cent despite the negative repercussions caused by Covid-19.

He also added that in the same period, the country was also able to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio to 87 per cent compared to the 90.4 per cent recorded in the same period in 2019 and 108 per cent …

Egypt recorded a $69.965 billion in foreign trade during the first nine months of the fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

According to the bank’s report, during the period from July 2019 to March 2020, Egypt’s imports amounted to about $49.012 billion while the volume of its exports reached about $20.953 billion.

Egypt’s volume of trade exchange with its most important trading partners amounted to about $44.296 billion. Of this amount, about $31.575 billion came from imports while about $12.720 billion came from exports. A total of 14 countries account for 63.3 per cent of Egypt’s total volume of trade exchange.

According to the central bank, United Arab Emirates ranked as Egypt’s most important trading partner, accounting for a trade exchange volume of about $5.745 billion with imports valued at $3.157 billion and exports at $225.1 million.

China took second place with a trade …

Egypt’s Balance of Payment (BOP) declined by 8.6 per cent in June 2020 compared to the same month in 2019 according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

According to CAPMAS, Egypt saw a trade deficit of $3.30 billion the same period.

This was majorly caused by the fall of exports by 7.8 per cent to $2.26 billion down from $2.45 billion causing a decrease in the BOP to $3.3 billion instead of $3.61 billion. The downturn has been attributed to the decreased value of some commodities, including fresh fruits at 10.5 per cent, ready-to-wear clothing at 2.5 per cent, crude oil at 46.3 per cent and plastics in primary forms at 10.4 per cent.

At the same period, the value of other exports increased during June 2020, which include various pastries and food preparations increased by 28.0 per cent, dairy products by 29.3 per cent and …