Planning Ministry runs the 6th meeting of the Technical Secretariat of the Committee to Review GDP Statistics

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development held the sixth meeting of the Technical Secretariat of the Committee for Reviewing Gross Domestic Product statistics, chaired by Dr. Ahmed Kamali, Deputy Minister of Planning, to discuss the status of reviewing statistics on national accounts and presenting what has been achieved.The meeting was held in the presence of Ahmed Koçak, Deputy Minister of Finance, and representatives of the concerned authorities, which include the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the Central Bank, Administrative Control, the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of Tourism, and the General Union of the Chamber of Commerce.Dr. Ahmed Kamali stressed the importance of the continuous development of the system of national accounts, explaining the interest of the political leadership and the Prime Minister to follow up the work of the committee and solve all the problems it faces.He noted that improving the process of calculating the GDP is a national priority, explaining the importance of having accurate and available data regularly and not late so that decision-makers can take correct, evidence-based policies.“Ministry of Planning and Economic Development is launching a new screen system in all concerned authorities in the context of achieving digital transformation and automation, to regulate the process of entering national accounts data received from the authorities, “ he said.Dr. Kamali stressed the importance of updating the index of manufacturing industries, taking into account its representation of the sub-sectors and the sizes of different companies, considering the manufacturing sector represents about 30% of the GDP, stressing that the structural reform program adopted by the government aims to strengthen and increase the size of the manufacturing sector.Dr. Ahmed Kamali also stressed the importance of issuing the agricultural production index due to its great importance to measure the output of the agricultural activity, especially with the availability of many national and huge projects in agricultural production.Dr. Kamali referred to the restaurants and hotels sector, explaining the importance of checking its data, as there was what is known as the "Tourism Satellite Accounts" and Egypt was a pioneer in that field, noting that a meeting was held soon with the Minister of Tourism to reactivate this account, which follows not only the incoming tourism, And even domestic tourism.In its sixth meeting, the committee followed up the executive position of the action plan on the position of the data that had been agreed to be obtained in light of the committee’s work, as well as updating the index of manufacturing industries, in addition to discussing the issuance of the semi-annual agricultural production index.The committee also followed up the indicators used to measure the activities of restaurants and hotels. The committee also discussed the issuance of a record for commercial exchange, and the development of the process of entering national accounts data (the screen system).