The Egyptian Ministry of Finance will calculcate the 2019/20 budget using a benchmark oil price of $80 per barrel, a senior government official told Enterprise.

The cabinet has started working on the new budget aiming for the GDP growth to increase to 6% in the upcoming fiscal year, up from 5.5% in 2018/19, the source said.

The finance ministry expects oil prices to average $80 per barrel during fiscal year (FY) 2019/20 and believes this to be a realistic threshold on which to base its fuel subsidy calculations, the source explained.

The current FY 2018/19 budget assumes an average oil price of $67 per barrel. Oil prices have risen considerably higher than this benchmark since the budget was unveiled in April, reaching a peak of $86.29 earlier in October.

Prices have fallen significantly over the past month, currently hovering above $76 per barrel.