CAIRO: Egypt has lowered its economic forecast for the next fiscal year and announced its intention to restructure the budget it approved in light of the continuing repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine war. “The priority will be to provide social protection programs that target the most vulnerable groups, in addition to what is necessary to achieve full financial discipline in spending, and even austerity in a number of matters,” Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said. Earlier, the Egyptian cabinet approved the budget for the next fiscal year, which aims to achieve an initial surplus of 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product. This was in addition to reducing the budget deficit to 6.1 percent of gross domestic product and lowering the debt ratio of budget agencies to about 80.5 percent. This is also amid efforts to develop solutions and expectations to deal with the most pessimistic scenarios and mitigate its severity, Madbouly said. He added that Egypt’s first priorities now are to monitor the availability of basic commodities and food products in the markets, and from factories producing these foodstuffs.