The Egyptian Treasury Minister Mohamed Maait said that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the Egyptian economy deeply, indicating that the target growth rate before the pandemic was six per cent. He added in a call with DMC TV that the government targeted to reduce the budget deficit to 6.3 per cent, but the crisis failed such reduction and kept the deficit at 7.9 per cent, the same as the previous year, so the first section of the new IMF’s loan given to Egypt, according to the stand-by agreement, will be directed to fund the budget deficit.

The state’s revenues declined by EGP 200 billion over the first half of the current fiscal year, and it is expected to decline by EGP 150 billion at least during the second half of the year. Maait emphasised the decline in tourism saying that the crisis of tourism affected the entire economic sectors. In addition, the pandemic shocked exports leaving them in stores without a market. Maait’s statements about Egypt’s critical economic situation came after al-Sisi’s announcement of a high-speed electric railway project over two years at a total cost of EGP 360 billion.