Arab Finance: Egypt has increased its general reserve allocation for wages by 127% to EGP 73.6 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2026/2027, up from EGP 34.6 billion in the current budget, alarabyia.net reported, citing the government’s draft budget for FY 2026/2027.

Total general reserves across all budget items are set to account for 4.6% of expenditures excluding interest, amounting to EGP 262.8 billion in 2026/2027, compared with 3.2%, or EGP 141 billion, in the current fiscal year.

The government allocated EGP 65.2 billion for subsidies and grants reserves, up from EGP 44.2 billion, and EGP 20 billion for non-financial asset purchases, compared to EGP 14 billion previously.

Reserves for other expenditures rose to EGP 36.8 billion from EGP 14.9 billion, while allocations for financial asset acquisitions increased to EGP 31.4 billion from EGP 8.99 billion.

Egypt also earmarked EGP 75 billion as capital contributions to nuclear power plants in the upcoming fiscal year, up from EGP 35 billion in the current year.

Meanwhile, the government lowered the ceiling for public guarantees to EGP 560 billion, down from EGP 740 billion, reducing the guarantees-to-GDP ratio to 28.1% from an expected 29.85% by the end of the current fiscal year.

The finance ministry’s capital contributions to the Egyptian National Railways will rise to EGP 10.5 billion from EGP 1 billion, while allocations to the National Authority for Tunnels will increase to EGP 19.4 billion from EGP 1.4 billion.

The ministry also plans to lend EGP 8 billion to EgyptAir in the coming fiscal year, unchanged from the current allocation.

Separately, Egypt has allocated EGP 135 billion in funding for health, energy, and essential commodities since the start of the US-Iran war, finance ministry data showed.

Of that total, the energy sector accounted for EGP 90.6 billion, followed by EGP 15 billion for healthcare and 30 billion for essential goods.