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Thursday, 24 December 2020

Covid: The gift that keeps on giving

The global collapse of the tourism trade continued to weigh on economic growth in 1Q2020-2021: Egypt’s economy grew only 0.7% during the first quarter of FY 2020-2021 and probably would have expanded at a 2.7% clip if it weren’t for the tourism sector, which continued to reel from the effects of the lockdown in the previous quarter, Planning and Economic Development Minister Hala El Said said yesterday.

Logistics, agriculture, education, and healthcare all grew faster year-on-year, the minister noted.

Manufacturing is still recovering and performed worse compared to the first quarter of last fiscal year, according to El Said. Growth in retail and telecommunications was flat.

The economy is expected to close out the fiscal year with 2.8-3.5% growth, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait recently said. Egypt’s economy managed to avoid contraction, and is set to be the only MENA economy to eke out positive growth this calendar year, Fitch Solutions’ recent monthly MENA outlook showed.

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