Egypt lifts 2015-16 GDP growth forecast

Egypt revised its GDP target for the current fiscal year to 5.5 percent from 5 percent on Saturday and said its economy grew at 4.2 percent in the 2014/2015 fiscal year, up from 2.2 percent the previous year.

Total GDP for fiscal year 2014/2015, which ended in June, was 2.4 trillion Egyptian pounds ($307 billion), planning minister Ashraf al-Arabi told a press conference on Saturday.

"The economy has responded favourably to reform processes put in place by the government and economic stimulus measures that have injected huge additional investments into labor-intensive infrastructure projects," a statement from the ministry said.

Fourth-quarter growth for 2014/2015 rose to 4.5 percent from 3.8 percent a year earlier, the minister said.

Total investment was 14.2 percent of GDP for 2014/2015, up from 13.3 percent a year earlier, but the country's trade deficit rose to $38.8 billion for 2014/2015 from $34.1 billion the year before.

Egypt said on Saturday it would increase exports to Russia by 15 percent next year to take advantage of Russian restrictions on Turkish imports and support its own ailing global exports, which dropped 17.4 percent in the first ten months of the year.