Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt's budget deficit deepened by 18% during July-April 2015/16, according to the monthly report issued by the Ministry of Finance.
Thus, budget deficit widened to EGP 273 billion (9.8% of gross domestic product "GDP") in the first ten months of the fiscal year 2015/16, versus EGP 231 billion (9.5% of GDP) for the year-ago period.
It is noteworthy that the government announced targeting a budget deficit limit at 8.9% of GDP, or EGP 251 billion, by the beginning of this fiscal year, compared with EGP 279 billion, or 11.5% of GDP in 2014/15.
Deeper deficit was driven by an increase in public expenditures by 8.5% year-over-year to EGP 587.6 billion from EGP 514.1 billion, the report indicated, revealing that public revenues also rose 2% year-on-year to EGP 327.5 billion from EGP 321 billion.
Earlier, the Ministry said budget deficit is projected to reach EGP 319.4 billion, representing 9.8% of GDP in FY16/17 public budget.