World Bank slightly downgrades Egypt’s growth forecast for 2024

The bank also downgraded the country’s real GDP growth rate for 2023 to 3.8 percent from 4.2 percent as per the report.

“Import restrictions constrained access to inputs for domestic production and exports while declining purchasing power of households and sluggish corporate activity weighed on investment and private consumption,” the WB’s report said.

“The conflict in the Middle East will likely exacerbate the inflation problem [in Egypt], eroding households’ purchasing power and constraining activity in the private sector, and intensify pressures on external accounts through implications on tourism, remittances, and oil trade balance,” the report warned.

In November, Egypt’s annual headline inflation decelerated to 36.4 percent, down from 38.5 percent in October, according to CAPMAS.

On Sunday, Fitch Solutions released a report projecting Egypt’s real GDP growth at 4.1 percent in 2024.

The Egyptian government has revised its forecasts for the country’s real GDP growth during the current fiscal year, which ends in June. The latest revision announced in December puts the figure at 3.5 percent, compared to the 4.2 percent projected a month earlier.