Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait has announced that amid current global and regional challenges, the fundamental elements of Egypt's comprehensive national security strategy are: President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi reiterated his commitment to implementing the measures. These initiatives aim to improve the standard of living of the people and strengthen the government's ability to meet essential, developmental and public service requirements.
Speaking at an economic forum organized by the Egyptian Institute for Political Economy, Statistics and Legislation on the theme of “Steering the Egyptian Economy: Regional and Global Perspectives…Addressing the Challenges of the Food Economy,” Maait spoke about the ongoing He stressed that the global crisis has highlighted the health of Egypt's economy. Egypt's approach to leveraging collective efforts to strengthen national capacity. This will be achieved by achieving the strategic agricultural development goals, which include ensuring food security by providing quality products at affordable prices to the population and protecting the nation from fluctuations in international and regional markets. will be done. This is in line with the political leadership's initiative to expand agricultural and food production projects aimed at increasing self-reliance and export value, as well as maintaining a sustainable strategic stockpile of critical goods for six months. It is.
Maait added that the government has embarked on a series of reform actions to rebuild the economic landscape and accelerate recovery, prioritizing agricultural and industrial production and exports in the next phase. The Government is committed to dedicating resources to strengthening the role of the private sector as a key driver of economic growth, ensuring stronger structures and agility to adapt to economic disruptions at home and abroad. There is. This is part of the government-backed economic reform agenda. IMF and World Development Alliance.
The program, which is attracting increasing investment interest, is premised on sustained fiscal health and aims to achieve a primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP, setting the fiscal deficit and debt ratio on a downward trajectory, and The debt ceiling is set not to exceed 88.2% in 2019. Next fiscal year. International credit rating agencies are optimistic about the outlook for the Egyptian economy, recognizing the potential for more vibrant opportunities for domestic and foreign investors. They favorably assess Egypt's new economic direction and predict that the country's credit rating could be upgraded in 2024.
The Minister of Finance said that the government will work with investors to ease the financial burden of agricultural and industrial venture development by continuing interest rate support initiatives, providing approximately EGP 120 billion in loan provisions for these sectors. I made it clear that I was doing it. The national treasury has earmarked EGP 8 billion annually to cover interest rate differences for beneficiaries, as well as budgetary provisions for the coming year to support farmers, strengthen the agricultural sector and strengthen Egypt's food system. .
He noted that Egypt's economy has faced complex challenges over the past four years, exacerbated by successive regional and global crises. These difficulties are exacerbated by the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, tensions in the Red Sea region, and the serious consequences of other forms of instability in the Middle East, as well as the negative impact of the conflict in Ukraine.
Geopolitical instability and regional and international conflicts have created a volatile economic environment characterized by a slowdown in economic activity, declining growth and investment rates, and escalating inflation, both globally and domestically. This is manifested in increased financing and development costs, particularly due to central banks' tightening monetary policies, rising interest rates and exchange rates, and rising transport and logistics costs, increasing production and import costs, and increasing the prices of essential goods. leading to an increase. We are considering the provision of food and services while also taking into account the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Maait said the country's overall decline in the last four years has been due to a decline in economic vitality and the negative effects of international and regional discord on certain economic sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, exports, Suez Canal revenues, and foreign investment. He pointed out that fiscal spending has been hit. Rapid intervention and extraordinary social protection measures targeting the most vulnerable segments of society, including low- and middle-income households, will help counter the severe economic damage and bring unprecedented spending to cushion the impact of inflation. has surged to unprecedented levels, supporting the sectors most affected by the economic crisis. Economic chaos.
