By Abdel Latif Wahba and Alaa Shahine

(Bloomberg) -- Egypt posted a budget deficit of 6.9 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year through June, less than the government’s forecast, and a...

By Abdel Latif Wahba and Alaa Shahine (Bloomberg) -- Egypt posted a budget deficit of 6.9 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year through June, less than the government’s forecast, and announced that it plans to more than halve the shortfall by 2015. The deficit was the same as that in the previous fiscal year, according to preliminary figures, the Finance Ministry said today in a faxed statement in Cairo. It added that the government will target a gap of 3 percent in six years. “It could be achievable under the strict assumptions of a strong rebound in economic growth over the next 2 to 3 years,” Reham El-Desoki, senior economist at the Cairo-based investment bank Beltone Financial, said in an e-mailed statement. The government had initially targeted a deficit of 6.9 percent for the past fiscal year. It revised its estimate to 8 percent after approving a 15 billion pound ($2.7 billion) economic stimulus package.