Egypt’s unemployment rate dropped to 10.6 percent in the first quarter of the year, down from 12 percent a year earlier, state statistics agency CAPMAS said on Tuesday -- Unemployment rate also decreased from 11.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017.
CAPMAS revealed in a statement that the number of unemployment reached 3.094 million in the first quarter, a decrease of 409,000 compared to the same quarter in 2017.
The labor force reached 29.186 million, an increase of 37,000 compared to the same quarter of the past year, decreasing 86,000 compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.
Egypt is working on several huge national projects of great labor force such as the new administrative capital, Suez Canal tunnels and the new roads.
In addition to the giant projects that contribute to finding job opportunities, the growth average of funding small projects has increased widely in Egypt.
Mohamed Omran, chairperson of the Financial Regulatory Authority, said Tuesday that the micro-finance in Egypt witnessed a remarkable increase of 71 percent end of the first quarter of the current year, compared to the same period of 2017, reaching EGP8.5 billion.
Omran expected the micro-finance granted by licensed eligible firms and associations to exceed EGP10 billion (around USD565 million) end of the current years.
In a related context, the International Finance Corporation announced on Tuesday providing a USD1 million funding to Egyptian Fertilizer Co. SAE within efforts of the corporation to support the industry sector in Egypt and to create job opportunities.
