By Nayera Abdallah and Nadine Awadalla
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt is allocating 127.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($4.14 billion) for its sprawling food subsidy programme out of a 3 trillion pound budget for the financial year starting on July 1, a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed.
Egypt, a nation of 105 million people, is one of the world’s biggest wheat importers and also relies on imports of other basic foods and fuel.
The finance ministry estimated Egypt would need 8.25 million tonnes of wheat in the coming financial year and budgeted for an oil price of $80 per barrel of Brent crude, the document, a financial statement attached to the draft budget approved by parliament, said.
Egypt is budgeting for revenues of 2.142 trillion pounds and expects a total deficit of 824.44 billion pounds, or 6.96% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the document.
The budget, which parliament approved on Monday, estimates real GDP growth of 4.1% and an average inflation rate of 16%.
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It also estimates that average interest on government debt instruments will reach 18.5%.
($1 = 30.8500 Egyptian pounds)
(Reporting by Nashaat Hamdy and Patrick Werr in Cairo, Nayera Abdallah and Nadine Awadalla in Dubai, Editing by Andrew Heavens and Conor Humphries)