Egypt’s economy grew 4.5% in the first half of 2015-16, down from 5.5% growth in the previous year, the planning minister said yesterday.
Total GDP for first half of fiscal year 2015-16, which began in July, was 1.4tn Egyptian pounds ($158bn) in the first half compared with 1.275tn pounds in the same period last year, minister Ashraf al-Arabi told a news conference.
Second quarter growth for 2015-16 was 3.8%, down from 4.3% a year earlier.
Al-Arabi said that his government is targeting less than 4.5% growth in second half of the current fiscal year and a total of 4.4 % of 2016, due to militant attacks that hit the tourism industry and other problems that had affected the economy.
A series of setbacks including the crash of an EgyptAir flight into the Mediterranean last week have affected Egypt’s ailing economy.
Egypt’s tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and a critical source of hard currency, has struggled to rebound since the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule ushered in a period of political and economic upheaval.
Al-Arabi said Egypt was targeting 5.2% growth in 2016-17 and 5% in the following year.
The government is also targeting a budget deficit of 9.8% for 2016-17 and 9% for 2017-18.
Egypt has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent months, straining the tourism sector and the economy as a whole.
The number of tourists fell 40% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to last year due in large part to the suspected bombing of a Russian plane carrying 224 people from a Red Sea resort in late October.
Islamic State said it had smuggled a bomb aboard.
In March, a man wearing a fake suicide belt hijacked an EgyptAir plane and diverted it to Cyprus.
More than 14.7mn tourists visited Egypt in 2010, dropping to 9.8mn in 2011.