More spending budgeted

President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi announced increased spending intended to boost the incomes of millions of Egyptians on Monday in the state budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year that goes into effect in July.

The new spending increases the minimum wage for public-sector employees, pensions, and civil-servant salaries, with the monthly minimum wage of civil servants increasing by 20 per cent from LE2,000 to LE2,400. Pensions are to increase by 13 per cent.

The announcements came as Al-Sisi met Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli to discuss the 2021-2022 budget, according to a statement from the Ittihadiya Presidential Palace.

Coming after two years of slowed economic activities on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, the increases will cushion the effects of the pandemic on Egyptian households.

President Al-Sisi is very much aware of people’s needs, especially as the government’s economic reform programme begins to reap its benefits, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said on TV on Monday.

The 20 per cent increase in the minimum wage for civil servants will cost the government LE37 billion and benefit five million employees. The last minimum wage increase for the public sector was introduced in 2019, when Al-Sisi raised it to LE2,000 from LE1,200.