CAIRO: Egypt’s economic growth rate is expected to reach 6 percent in the current fiscal year, despite challenges stemming from COVID-19, the country’s minister of planning and economic development said. The expected result is driven by “the growth spurt of 9.8 percent that was achieved in the first quarter of the year, which is the highest growth rate in 20 years, as a result of which international institutions have raised their forecast for the Egyptian economy,” Hala Al-Saeed added. Despite the repercussions of the pandemic, the Egyptian economy achieved a growth rate of 3.3 percent during the fiscal year 2020-2021 and 3.6 percent in the year 2019-2020, she said. The positive indicators witnessed are driven by the measures, policies and efforts taken by the government to enhance the elements of resilience of the Egyptian economy in the face of the pandemic. Policies were targeted to reform the economy’s structure, liberalise trade, reform the vocational training system, and develop capital markets, as aimed by the National Program for Structural Reforms. The National Program for Structural Reforms includes three phases, with the first phase launched in 2016 and the second phase kicked off in April 2021. The minister’s comments came during the opening session of the Sustainable Development Week at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo.