Finance Minister Hani Qadri Damian said at a news conference Monday that the next state budget has been prepared without economic reform measures.
“The budget shows a deficit of LE340 billion to LE350 billion or 14.25 percent of GDP,” he said. “We aim to reduce it to 10 percent.”
He said there is a gap in financing that ranges between LE120 billion and LE130 billion that would be covered on several stages and not at once, adding that spending on health was increased to LE86 billion in the next budget versus LE33 billion, spending on pre-university education will be increased to LE112 billion versus LE55 billion, spending on higher education will be increased to LE56 billion versus LE18 billion, and spending on scientific research will be increased to LE27 billion versus less than LE2 billion.
He also said energy prices will be changed inevitably, but did not specify when. “Rationalization of energy subsidies is not limited to price increases,” he noted.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
