Egypt suffers a budget deficit of 12 billion Egyptian pounds

Egypt’s Finance Minister Hany Kadry Dimian announced that the state’s budget suffers from a nearly 12 billion Egyptian pounds deficit. Dimian explained that the gap between the state’s expenditures and revenues is wide, where expenditures exceed the country’s revenues.

Economic observers noted that Egypt’s economy faces a serious crisis under the military backed government, which continues to depend on financial and political aid provided by the Gulf States including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The state’s deepening financial crisis prompted the newly appointed government to tax Egyptians living abroad, sparking anger from Egyptians worldwide.

Economists have predicted that: “the imposed taxation by Egypt’s tax authorities will harm the Egyptian economy and force Egyptians to boycott the regime.”

Note: this page was updated at 13.39GMT on March 14, 2014 to clarify that the “pounds” on this page refers to Egyptian Pounds and not Pound Sterling