CAIRO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's tax revenue increased by 32 percent in the 2016/2017 fiscal year ending in late June to reach 464 billion Egyptian pounds (about 26.3 billion U.S. dollars) compared to 352 billion Egyptian pounds (about 20 billion dollars) in the previous fiscal year, the country's finance minister said on Tuesday.
The remarks of Finance Minister Amr al-Garhy came during a meeting with President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail on the country's current economic situation and the progress of the ongoing economic reform program, said presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef in a statement after the meeting.
During the meeting, Garhy highlighted the progress of the ongoing economic reform program and the measures to reduce the general budget deficit from 10.9 percent in the 2016/2017 fiscal year to at least 9.5 percent in the current 2017/2018 fiscal year.
Egypt has been suffering economic recession due to political instability and relevant security issues over the past few years, which led to a decline in the country's foreign investments and tourism revenues and an increase in the budget deficit and foreign and domestic debts.
The country started last year a strict three-year economic reform program including local currency full floatation to face dollar shortage, besides austerity measures, energy subsidy cuts and tax increases.
"The first stage of the economic reform program focused on solving basic problems topped by correcting the situation of foreign exchange rates and redirecting energy subsidies," the finance minister explained.
Egypt's reform program is encouraged by a 12-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, a third of which has already been delivered to Egypt in two tranches in November 2016 and July 2017.
