CAIRO, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's total budget deficit dropped to 505 billion Egyptian pounds (about 10.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the fiscal year 2023/2024 that concluded on June 30, compared with 610 billion Egyptian pounds in the previous fiscal year, Egyptian Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said in a statement on Wednesday.
Kouchouk added that the country's revenues recorded annual growth of 59.3 percent during the fiscal year 2023/2024.
He added that Egypt recorded a preliminary surplus of 857 billion Egyptian pounds in the 2023/2024 budget, compared with 164 billion Egyptian pounds a year earlier, despite the shocks that impacted the economic activities.
He also reviewed the future prospects of the fiscal year 2024/2025, noting that his ministry targets putting the budget debt on a downward path.
Over the past two years, the U.S. dollar shortage in Egypt has led to the devaluation of the local currency and the rise of a parallel currency exchange market, plunging Egypt into one of its worst economic crises.
The crisis was further exacerbated by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that erupted last year, which has impacted Egypt's tourism sector and halved its revenues from the Suez Canal. ■