Egypt’s Planning Minister says poverty rate decreased for first time since 1999

Dr. Hala El-Said, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said that the study of income and expenditure is one of the most important researches in support of the economic and social databases that the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has provided regularly for more than sixty years, as one of the rich contributions made by the agency to provide statistical surveys and comprehensive and specialized databases, which enhances the state's efforts to provide and develop databases at the national level, in addition to societal research and exceptional research carried out by the agency under the current unprecedented conditions that Egypt and the world are witnessing in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, which aims to study and measure the impact of the pandemic on Egyptian families and conditions These studies and researches have contributed to strengthening the state's efforts to take proactive measures and to develop a clear and thoughtful plan to confront the repercussions of the pandemic, which balances between preserving and protecting the citizen's health and continuing the wheel of economic activity.This came during her speech on Thursday at the conference "Announcing the Results of Income, Expenditure and Consumption Research 2019/2020", under the patronage and attendance of Prime Minister Dr. Mustafa Madbouly, CAPMAS head Major General Khairat Barakat, and several experts and representatives of local and international bodies and organizations.El-Said added that the research includes a tremendous wealth of data that diagnoses reality, and helps to geographically target development gaps, directs the compass of the country's efforts to confront poverty in its broad and multi-dimensional sense, and provides updated data that opens the way for experts and researchers to study and analyze specialized and in-depth for various sectors, to provide recommendations and solutions that It supports the state's efforts and endeavors to address problems and achieve comprehensive and sustainable development.The minister said that the study of income, expenditure, and consumption is one of the researches of special importance, as through it we can monitor the average and patterns of consumption expenditure of the family and the individual according to the social, demographic, and economic characteristics of the population, and provide data that are relied upon in measuring the living standards of families and individuals, as well as creating databases for measuring poverty, whether it is material poverty or multidimensional poverty, calculating the average annual consumption of the household and the individual for each item of spending, studying the factors affecting it, and identifying the relative distribution of family spending on the different spending items and using them as weights in calculating the consumer price index, which is an indicator for measuring inflation. This is in addition to providing the necessary data for preparing national accounts, including tables of inputs and outputs and commodity scales, and identifying the average household and individual income according to different sources of income.El-Said continued that all these indicators and data included in the research represent a basic pillar for development planning and directing the state’s efforts to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development. There is interest in making these data available on a large scale, both to the relevant ministries, and to scientific and research institutions specialized in economic and social affairs, and at the same time, the state seeks to maximize benefit from this data in setting up programs and operational plans that aim to identify development gaps, reduce poverty rates, and improve the quality of life for the Egyptian citizen. These goals are of top priority in the interim work plans and programs implemented by the state, whether within the framework of Egypt Vision 2030 or within the framework of the successful implementation of the national program for the economic and social reform initiated by the country as of November 2016.During her speech, the Minister of Planning and Economic Development indicated that despite the difficult circumstances and challenges imposed by the unprecedented repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are witnessing today and through this year’s examination of many positive indicators, which represent important signs through which we see the fruits of the efforts made by the Egyptian state. In recent years, the poverty rate decreased for the first time since 1999 (it decreased to 29.7% compared to 32.5% in 2017/2018), as the poverty rate decreased in all regions and the decline was greater in rural Lower Egypt by (4.73%), followed by rural Upper Egypt (3.79%).The research also indicates an increase in the average annual net income for a family at the level of the Republic from 60,400 pounds in the year 2017/2018 to 69,100 pounds in the year 2019/2020, an increase of about 15%, and the average annual income of the family increased in the Republic from 69,600 pounds annually in 2017/2018 to 80,900 pounds in 2020/2019, an increase of 16.3%, while the average annual income of the family in the countryside of the Republic increased from 52,700 pounds annually in 2017/2018 to 59,700 pounds annually in 2020/2019, an increase of 13 .3%.Dr. El-Said said this relative improvement confirms that with the pursuit of economic reform, the state has not neglected its necessary role in mitigating the effects of this reform’s measures on lower-income groups. It coincided with the government's efforts to implement the National Program for Economic and Social Reform and implement a wide range of social protection programs. This is the largest in the history of Egypt, as the state aimed to increase public investments in the plan for the current fiscal year 20/2021 by 70% to reach 595 billion pounds, and this includes directing investments of 47.1 billion pounds to develop Upper Egypt governorates, an increase of 51% compared to the previous year, with the government's interest in developing the social protection system and the extension of social safety nets by expanding the number of beneficiaries of the Takaful and Karama program and expanding the implementation of the Decent Life and Survival Boats initiatives for the villages most in need, as the most prominent tools to enhance the umbrella of social protection.El-Said indicated that one of the important indicators included in the research is: Increase the proportion of the poor with the increase in the size of the family, because large families are more vulnerable to poverty, so here comes the importance of controlling population growth rates, and addressing the imbalance between the rate of population growth and the size of resources, which devours the results and fruits of the achieved growth, and even threatens more pressures and economic and social challenges, which leads to a decline in the return from development efforts, as it increases the difficulty of facing the problems of unemployment and the disparity in development indicators between different regions and governorates, so the state works to manage the housing issue by controlling population growth, and upgrading population characteristics such as education, health, job opportunities, and empowerment In this context, the state seeks to meet this challenge by developing a comprehensive plan to control population growth rates, which will be implemented as of early next year 2021, in cooperation between all ministries and relevant authorities.After her speech, El-Said said that the relative improvement and positive indicators included in the income and spending research for this year indicate that the country is on the right path, which prompts the continuation of efforts. Achieving the comprehensive development in light of the increasing challenges requires years of serious and continuous work and diligent effort in which all development partners from the sector cooperate with private and civil society together with the government, as the Egyptian state has a clear will and action plan backed and supported by a political will to continue efforts and complete the steps it has started to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development.