Egypt’s economic growth rate registered 4.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fiscal year 2015/16, down from 4.4 percent in the fiscal year before, the planning ministry said in an emailed statement to Ahram Online on Friday.
The ministry attributed the drop in the growth rate, which was below the government's target of 4.5-5 percent, to the decline in exports by 14.5 percent.
However, the ministry said that the rate, which has been calculated according to the market’s constant prices, was achieved amid "unfavorable economic circumstances globally and locally".
Egypt, which relies heavily on imports, mostly food, has been suffering from an acute shortage of the US dollars since the 2011 uprising, which was followed by political and security unrest that has turned away tourists and foreign investors, two major sources of hard currency.
The country’s annual headline inflation registered 14.6 percent in September, up from a one-digit inflation rate of 9.4 percent in the same month last year.
The government targets an economic growth rate of 5.2 percent of GDP by the end of the current 2016/17 fiscal year.
