To have a complete experience of ANSAmed webportal contents script must be enabled on your browser.

To enable the script on Internet Explorer:
1.Select 'Tools' from the top menu
2.Choose 'Internet Options'
3.Click on the 'Security' tab
4.Click on 'Custom Level'
5.Scroll down until you see section labled 'Scripting'
6.Under 'Active Scripting', select 'Enable' and click OK

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JULY 1 - Egypt's new state budget of 379.3 billion pounds (45.35 billion euro), the largest in the nation's history, goes into effect as of today. Finance Minister Yousef Boutros Ghali said in a statement, published by the local press today, that the new state budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year was larger by 55% compared to the previous budget. It is higher by 109.7 billion pounds in contrast to last year's budget (13.11 billion euro). Ghali said 215 billion pounds (25.70 billion euro) of the new budget has been allocated for improving natives' living conditions, higher by 55% compared to previous alloted sum, and indicated that the country's top strategists opted to earkmark a much larger budget, considering the global soaring inflation marked with drastic hike of prices of necessities. State subsidies for the basic food products are estimated at more than 21.5 billion pounds (2.57 billion euro), compared to 10 billion pounds (1.19 billion euro) last year, with a rise of 115%, he said, indicating that this was intended to maintain prices of bread and increase the number of nationals who benefit from the food card. The government, seeking to cope with the economic crisis, has cancelled custom tariffs on some food commdities such as cooking oil, dairies, and banned exportation of rice for a year. It has also taken steps to expand cultivation of wheat and corn. Overall bill for the social benefits and subsidies amounts to some 134 billion pounds (16.02 billion euro), including 62.7 billion pounds (7.49 billion euro) for supporting oil products. The US dollar equals approximately 5.3 Egyptian pounds.