Egypt\u2019s economy \u201cwill continue to outperform\u201d its regional peers in FY2019-20<\/b>, Fitch said in its Africa Monitor report for April. While the weighted average GDP growth rate for the MENA region is expected to come in at 1.9% in FY2018-19 and 2.8% in FY19-20, Fitch says it sees Egypt\u2019s GDP growing at a 5.3% and 5.2% clip for the current and next fiscal years. Growth in the near term will be driven mostly by hydrocarbon investments and government infrastructure projects, while exports and non-hydrocarbon investments will grow at a more gradual pace. The report tempers expectations by pointing to \u201cstill-elevated\u201d inflation as a downside risk for the economy, which it says \u201cwill weigh on private consumption in the near term \u2026 slowing the pace of job creating and in turn capping private consumption gains. We forecast these constraints to ease towards the latter part of 2019 and beyond \u2014 allowing private consumption to eventually re-emerge as the main contributor to headline growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report also lauds the Central Bank of Egypt\u2019s recent rate cuts<\/b>, noting that \u201ccheaper credit is broadly positive for Egypt\u2019s economic growth trajectory, helping to facilitate investment and stimulate job creation and consumption.\u201d Fitch maintains it expects another two 100 bps rate cuts over the course of the year, noting that the downside risks to further monetary easing are \u201csubstantial.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Egypt\u2019s economy \u201cwill continue to outperform\u201d its regional peers in FY2019-20, Fitch said in its Africa Monitor report for April. While the weighted average GDP growth rate for the MENA region is expected to come in at 1.9% in FY2018-19 and 2.8% in FY19-20, Fitch says it sees Egypt\u2019s GDP growing at a 5.3% and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8572],"tags":[72,11198,182,349,2380],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-597778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speed-round","tag-enterpriseam","tag-fitch-research","tag-inflation","tag-interest-rates","tag-speed-round","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"a88030ad-40d8-4c2a-aec0-a9c2e2c236cf","is_powered_by":true,"section_story_id":"18178d91-8955-4baa-a3cf-7b625ed68611","story_type":"1","photo_url":"","photo_position":"above","related_issue":[597762],"teaser":"","voice_url":""},"yoast_head":"\n