Egypt primary surplus hits all-time high of EGP 330 bln in FY24/25

​During a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to review the key financial results for the mentioned period, Kouchouk also revealed that tax revenues increased by 38.4 percent year-on-year (YoY), marking the highest annual growth rate achieved in years.

Meanwhile, debt management improved by distributing the burden of interest payments across FY2024/2025.

Kouchouk added that the growth rate of treasury-funded investments slowed down due to the government's focus on prioritizing spending and reviewing the public investment plan to ensure it remains below the investment spending ceiling of the current fiscal year.

He explained that spending on the health and education sectors increased by 29 percent and 24 percent, respectively, compared to last year. Furthermore, spending on support, grants, and social benefits surged by 44 percent.

Kouchouk outlined the FY2025/2026 budget axes and priorities, noting that the first axis will focus on driving economic growth and activity; creating job opportunities by boosting confidence in the Egyptian economy; supporting productive sectors like tourism and technology; and maintaining financial stability by adhering to targets and reducing debt and its burdens.

Additionally, he emphasized securing energy sources and meeting sector commitments while increasing allocations for social protection, human development, and support programmes for priority groups.

In this context, the minister presented the key financial targets for the FY2025/2026 budget: to sustain a primary surplus, increase tax revenues, and enhance spending on the health sector and social protection programmes like Takaful and Karama.

Kouchouk also spotlighted reform implementations under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, including the disbursement of the fourth tranche and preparations for the fifth review. The minister also presented a proposal to reduce the debt of budgetary entities.

The IMF completed the fourth review of Egypt's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) loan programme last week, greenlighted a new $1.3 billion loan package for the country under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), and projected Egypt’s real GDP growth to recover in FY2024/2025 to 3.6 percent from 2.4 percent in FY2023/2024.

Moreover, the IMF expected inflation to moderate to 16.6 percent, averaging 22.4 percent for the year, the debt-to-GDP ratio to decline from 90.9 percent in the previous year to 86.8 percent by the end of FY2024/2025, and the external debt to jump from 39.9 percent to 46.1 percent of the GDP this year.