Minister of Planning and Administrative Reform Hala el Saeed - File PhotoCAIRO – 16 January 2019: After 26 months of applying economic reforms, Egypt has achieved a growth rate of 5.3 percent by the end of 2018, recording the highest economic growth rate in 10 years, Minister of Planning Hala el-Saeed said.Saeed clarified that growth was driven by investments, with 70 percent going for foreign trade and 30 percent going for consumption, commenting that this is a balanced growth rate that reflected on the decline of the unemployment rates to 9.9 percent.This came during his speech at the conference "Progressing: The Future of Real Estate Investment in Egypt", which is a prelude to the Cityscape Egypt exhibition and conference that will be held from March 27 to 30. The country also aims to carry out reforms in the promising sectors to give these sectors the opportunity to start and expand. She further clarified that these promising sectors include the real estate and the construction sectors, which are of great importance and possess a great ability to grow, create jobs and link with various sectors.The construction sector's relative weight in the growth rate is 17 percent, in addition to providing 13 percent of the job opportunities generated.On updating Egypt's vision 2030, Saeed pointed out that the program was launched three years ago, and it was necessary to take into account all the global, local and regional variables, adding that when the vision was set there was no economic reform program. She also noted that the population issue has become very urgent. "Every year we have a new country in Egypt, where we increase by 2.5 percent per year," which requires new resources, pointing to the issue of water scarcity.

Source: Egypt Today January 16, 2019 11:03 UTC