Egypt on track to achieve its targeted budget surplus

CAIRO - Egypt's state revenues grew by 35.5 percent in the first quarter of this fiscal year, putting the government on track to achieve its targeted budget surplus of 2 percent, the finance minister said on Friday.

Government investment rose 85 percent while tax collection increased by 39.8 percent, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in a statement.

"These positive results for the first quarter of the current fiscal year affirm Egypt's ability to achieve its financial targets for the budget for the current fiscal year," the minister said.

Maait attributed the positive results to Egypt's economic reforms programme, part of an IMF-backed loan deal signed in 2016 that included devaluing the national currency and cutting state subsidies.

Egypt's fiscal year runs from July to June.

Egypt's budget deficit in the first quarter of the current fiscal year was down slightly to 1.9 percent from 2 percent last year, the minister previously said.

Egypt has vowed to push ahead with economic reforms which it sees as essential in attracting foreign investment.