The Egyptian government has included tourism within an initiative aimed at supporting the country’s productive sectors, along with industry and agriculture.
On Wednesday, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that the government has allocated 10 billion Egyptian pounds ($320 million) to support the tourism sector within the government’s initiative, bringing the total financing for the targeted productive sectors to 160 billion Egyptian pounds ($5.17 billion) during the fiscal year 2023-2024, which starts in July.
Egypt aims to increase the revenues of its tourism sector from the current average of $11 billion annually, to $30 billion annually over the next three years, according to previous statements by Madbouly.
During a meeting with Finance Minister Mohammed Maait, the prime minister emphasized the government’s commitment to achieving the new budget targets, especially in reaching an initial surplus of GDP and reducing the budget deficit in line with the planned ratios, while expanding the social safety net and addressing the effects of economic challenges.
For his part, Maait explained that the new budget aims to achieve an initial surplus of 2.5% of GDP, with a total deficit rate of around 6.37%. He also noted that the next budget will witness an increase in allocations for support and social protection from 358.4 billion Egyptian pounds to 529.7 billion Egyptian pounds, in implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, in order to mitigate the effects of the global inflation wave on citizens.
The minister added that an agreement was reached to allocate 45 billion Egyptian pounds to purchase local wheat from farmers in this year’s season, starting from April 1 to mid-August, an increase of more than 19 billion Egyptian pounds compared to last year. He stressed that financial resources will be provided to farmers upon delivery, in implementation of Sisi’s directives.
