Egypt’s Population Hits 100m In Spite Of Curtailment

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The population of Egypt, on Tuesday officially surpassed 100 million, reaching a new record in spite government’s efforts to promote birth control and curtail population growth.

The Statistics Agency of the Government (CAPMAS), disclosed this on its website in Cairo.
Egypt is the Arab world’s most populous country. In recent decades, the government has launched several family planning campaigns seeking to slow population growth and ease the pressure on its struggling economy.

The country’s economy was battered by political unrest following the 2011 uprising which forced long-time President Hosny Mubarak out of power. However, militant attacks in response to the army-led 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi further dampened its growth.

President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi introduced a series of harsh economic reforms in 2014, including slashing subsidies and liberalising the exchange rate, measures the government said were necessary to heal the ailing economy. The country’s population stood at 94.8 million in the 2017 census.

The figures were announced during a televised ceremony in which the findings of the country’s latest census were read by Abu-Bakr al-Gindy, head of the state’s Statistics Bureau.

The figure for Egypt’s population — 94,798,827 million as of April — is an increase of 22 million since 2006, when the latest census was held. The country’s population stood at 38.3 million in 1986 and 59.3 million 10 years later. Al-Gindi said Egyptians aged between 15 and 34 accounted for 34.8 percent of the population.

Egypt’s capital, Cairo, and its twin province of Giza have a combined population of 18.1 million.

Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, has been struggling to check its population growth — about 2 million a year — to allow its ambitious economic reforms to make a difference to the country’s poor majority. The reforms, introduced gradually over the past three years, included the floatation of the currency, lifting state subsidies on fuel, raising utility charges and introducing a value added tax.

The economy, battered by years of turmoil following the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, has started showing signs of recovery, although that has yet to impact on the daily grind most Egyptians endure to make ends meet in the face of 30 percent inflation.

In a report released this weekend, the central bank forecasts GDP growth of five percent in the current 2017-18 fiscal year, which began July 1. It says GDP growth was expected to reach 6.5 percent by the year 2020.

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