Egypt should cut down on governmental spending inside ministries and government institutions as it faces a critical financial conditions, the head of Egypt’s economic committee at the parliament said in a televised statement.
In an interview on an Egyptian satellite channel, Ali El-Meselhi said that the government should lower expenditure costs by 5 percent, especially with Egypt facing a budget deficit [for the fiscal year 2015-2016] reaching 13 percent of the gross domestic product.
According to official reports, the current budget shows a total expenditure of EGP 936 million in 2016-2017, some 8 percent higher than the total of EGP 864.5 million in 2015-2016 spending.
The former minister of solidarity added that the deficit represents a huge burden in the current economic state, pointing out that foreign currency reserves Egypt’s central bank have reached $17 billion – lower than the normal $25 billion dollar. El-Meselhi added that the government was responsible for cooperating with the parliament to put forward a “real” economic reform programme to solve the current crisis. The statements by the head of the parliamentary committee come as Egypt is trying to secure a $12 billion loan package from the the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over three years.
The IMF is set to finish its mission in Cairo — which started last week — within ten days.
On Thursday, Egypt’s finance minister Amr El-Garhy said that negotiations with the IMF delegation were moving at a good pace, adding that that the delegation will not negotiate regarding the loan that Egypt is requesting.
El-Garhy reiterated that the IMF delegation did not impose conditions during the negotiations, adding that Egypt was currently reviewing procedures to control the budget deficit.
