Egypt’s state companies report robust profits boosting growth

Egypt’s state companies report robust profits boosting growth

An employee at a spinning mill in Cairo, Egypt. File/Reuters



Egypt's state companies have been enjoying robust earnings, an official data shows, acting as a growth driver and eclipsing the private sector despite the IMF-inspired reforms to restructure the economy.

Data published for the first time by the finance ministry gives a glimpse of how numerous state companies have prospered over the last few years, while investment in the private sector has languished.

Revenues of 17 non-oil, state-run holding companies more than doubled over three years to 60.64 billion Egyptian pounds ($3.88 billion) in 2018-19. The calculations were based on the companies' latest available results, published on the finance ministry's website late last year.

Net profit after tax at the 17 holding companies - which together control about 180 smaller companies - more than quadrupled over the three-year period, the data shows.

Egypt's economy was growing at nearly 6%