Egypt’s budget deficit up 50.5 percent

Egypt’s budget deficit has increased by 50.5 percent to reach LE186 billion (8 percent of Gross Domestic Product GDP) during July-February 2014/2015, compared to LE123.6 billion (6.2 percent of GDP) during July-February 2013/2014, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday.The monthly financial bulletin for March 2015 explained that the main reason behind the growing budget deficit was the 84.7 percent decrease in grants from Gulf countries, which reached LE7.9 billion (1USD=7.6 LE) in the first eight months of 2014/15, compared to about LE51.4 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Total revenues reached LE208.1 billion during July-February 2014/2015, declining by 18 percent compared to the same period last year, due to the fall in grants and Income Tax revenues by 84.7 percent and 28.2 percent, respectively.