Egypt In-Focus — Economy expands by 6.6%; country plans to import renewable energy storage batteries

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CAIRO: Egypt’s economy expanded by 6.6 percent in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, with growth accelerating from the previous year’s 3.3 percent, Reuters reported.

The report said the economic activity in the North African country picked up after recovering from the coronavirus disease pandemic but slowed down again due to the war in Ukraine.

The growth figure given in a Cabinet statement was higher than a preliminary 6.2 percent number cited by the central bank on Aug. 18.

The restaurants and hotels sector led the surge, expanding by 45 percent as tourism recovered after the pandemic, with the communications sector growing by 16.3 percent.

Central bank advisers

The governor of the Egyptian central bank, Hassan Abdulla, has appointed Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, the former head of the Commercial International Bank, and Mohamed Naguib, the former non-executive chairman of SAIB Bank, as his advisers.

Energy storage

Egypt is currently in negotiations with German and Indian companies to import renewable energy storage batteries, Ahmed Mahina, head of the strategic planning and performance monitoring sector at the Ministry of Electricity told Asharq.

US company Tesla had previously offered the Egyptian government to provide batteries to store energy.In 2021, Egypt was the most productive Arab country in renewable energy, as its production of clean energy grew by 8.3 percent compared to 2020, to reach 10.5 terawatt-hour.