Egypt’s budget deficit narrows in first quarter

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt’s budget deficit in the first quarter of 2016/17 narrowed to 2.4 percent from 2.8 percent in the same period a year earlier, two government sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

“The total deficit for the first quarter of the year was around 76.816 billion Egyptian pounds ($4.47 billion) from 78.280 billion a year earlier,” one of the sources said.

Egypt’s financial year starts in July.

Both sources said the government debt interest has reached around 57.189 billion pounds in the first quarter from 50.704 billion pounds in the same period a year earlier, but subsidies, grants and social benefits costs fell to 32.094 billion pounds from 37.942 billion pounds a year earlier.

The central bank abandoned the pound’s peg of 8.8 to the dollar last Thursday, devaluing it by a third before unshackling the currency in an effort to attract inflows of capital and crush a booming black market in dollars.