CAIRO – Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli has stressed that the economic reform programme and the acceleration of development rates had been instrumental in enabling the country to face and deal with the repercussions of global economic emergencies resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Speaking to a press conference he called on Sunday to expound the government’s vision on addressing the consequences of the global economic crisis in pursuance of President Sisi’s directives, the prime minister noted that the government’s measures include consolidating the role of the private sector in economic activities and supporting national industries to promote reliance on local products.
Also included in these measures are the setting out of a clearly defined plan to reduce public debt and budget deficit over four years and forwarding an integrated vision to support the role of the Egyptia Exchange (EGX) in economic revival, the Prime Minister said.
Concomitantly with these measures, the government continues to observe the social dimension of the developmental efforts and keeps extending social protection to limited-income segments, Dr. Madbouli said.
The government’s economic reform programme has entailed such structural adjustments that made it possible to bring unemployment rate down from 13 per cent to 7.4 percent, the prime minister said. Had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic, the rate would have been much better, he added.
Regarding national mega projects, the Prime Minister said that such projects would not stop but that priorities would undergo rearrangement on the basis of the availability of foreign components.
In his statement to the press conference, Dr. Mdabouli explained that the Russian-Ukrainian crisis has brought further repercussions for the global economy, the prime minister said, noting that Fitch Ratings has downgraded its forecast for the global economic growth in 2022, expecting it to reach 3.3 per cent, which is also below its 3.6-per cent reading in March.
World losses as a result of the crisis have reached up to $12 trillion dollars – which is five times Africa’s GDP last year, and equivalent to the production of four Arab countries and six Asian states, the prime minister said.
He noted that the total cultivated area is likely to hit 14 per cent of the country’s total area when the ongoing national projects are completed, which will bring about a remarkable rise in what production.
The prime Minister also stressed that Egypt’s rights to River Nile waters are clear, would not accept any harm to its water resources and does not stand against development in any of the Nile Basin countries. Egypt, he added, is helping the implementation of many developmental projects in these countries through Egyptian companies.
Elaborating, the Prime Minister said that Egypt will not accept any harm to its water resources, insists on its rights and, emanating from these bases, deals calmly and wisely with fellow African countries.
On the role of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), Madbouli said that the target is to make sure that the measures taken to face a crisis are just temporary, saying that foreign investors willing to quit, can take the move any time they opt for. “As a state, we secure a safe entry or exit of foreign money,” he said.
Indicating that wheat import prices in Egypt have upped from $71 per tonne to $435 dollars, the Prime Minister said that the total value of wheat imports have risen from $2.7 billion to $4.4 billion.
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