LEGISLATION WATCH- House Budget committee approves FY2019-2020 draft budget: The House of Representatives Planning and Budget Committee has approved the draft budget for the FY2019-2020 fiscal year and referred it to the general assembly to set a date for a vote, MP Yasser Omar told the local press. The House will meet on Saturday for final discussions before members cast their ballots, Masrawy reported. Here’s a recap of the figures that matter:

• GDP growth registering 6% by June 2020;
• Budget deficit of 7.2% of GDP, down from 8.4% in the current fiscal year;
• Primary budget surplus of 2%;
• Reducing public debt to 89% of GDP, with an eye to bringing that figure down to 80% by FY2021-22;
• Unemployment falling to 9.1% and population growth slowing to 2.3%.

Education and health get some love: The committee agreed that an additional EGP 1.5 bn goes to education, an additional EGP 1.9 bn goes to the health sector, an additional EGP 2.5 bn goes to higher education and an additional EGP 1 bn goes to the transportation sector, in addition to other smaller increases, Omar said. The increases in the allocations given to the education and health sectors come short of the EGP 10 bn and EGP 27 bn the ministries had asked for, respectively.