This performance pushed the annual growth rate for the entire 2024-2025 fiscal year to about 4.4%, surpassing the modest 2.4% recorded in 2023-2024 and exceeding the targeted growth rate of 4.2%.
The Ministry noted that this recovery underscores the resilience
of the Egyptian economy in the face of consecutive external shocks. It
attributed the success to the continuous efforts to implement policies that
support macroeconomic stability, govern public investment spending, and
stimulate increased private sector contribution to the economy, driven by the
government's commitment to its structural reform agenda.
Growth in the fourth quarter and for the full fiscal year
was largely propelled by high growth in several key sectors, most notably tourism,
non-petroleum manufacturing, and communications and information technology.
The recovery was supported by an 18.8% rise in the
non-petroleum manufacturing industry index in the fourth quarter of FY
2024-2025, a sharp acceleration from the 4.7% growth in the corresponding
quarter of the previous year. This was fueled by expansion in key industries,
including vehicles (126%), pharmaceuticals (52%), and ready-made garments (41%).
On the expenditure side, the quarter saw a marked
improvement in the contribution of investment and inventory to GDP, shifting
from negative to positive, signaling a gradual restoration of investment
momentum. Data indicated a notable shift in the structure of investment: public
investments' share of total investment and inventory declined to 43.3% in FY
2024-2025 from 51.2% in 2023-2024, while the share of private investments rose
to 47.5%, the highest level in the past five years.
Despite global uncertainty and regional geopolitical
tensions, activity in the Suez Canal continued to decline, albeit at a slower
pace of 5.48% in the fourth quarter. However, for the full fiscal year, the
drop was a sharp 52%, reflecting the negative impact of geopolitical tensions
on maritime traffic, which led to a significant decrease in the number and tonnage
of vessels crossing the waterway. The extraction sector, specifically oil and
natural gas, also continued to see contracting activity in the fourth quarter
and for the full fiscal year, though the pace of contraction began to slow in
the fourth quarter as some field development work resumed.
Key Sector Performance:
The quarterly growth was driven by a major expansion in: Tourism
(19.3%), non-petroleum manufacturing (18.8%), communications and information
technology (14.6%), and financial intermediation (10.8%). Other sectors that
showed a significant rebound included insurance, electricity, wholesale and
retail trade, and construction.
Annually, for FY 2024-2025: tourism (restaurants and hotels)
recorded the highest growth rate at about 17.3%, non-petroleum manufacturing
registered a positive growth rate of about 14.7%, and the communications and
information technology sector achieved notable growth of about 13.8%.
The continued recovery of the non-petroleum manufacturing sector to reach 18.8% in the fourth quarter and 14.7% for the full year surpassed the contraction it faced over the previous two years. This industrial growth coincided with a marked improvement in exports, with exports of final goods recording a 12.8% annual increase in the fourth quarter. This increase was led by a rise in exports of diversified food preparations (31.1%), ready-made garments (29.2%), and perfumes and cosmetics (52.7%), reflecting the manufacturing sector's flexibility and capacity to rapidly respond to global demand.