Egypt's baby boom needs a pumped-up economy, El-Sisi says

Egypt’s economy needs to grow by at least 7.5 percent a year to lift living standards for a surging population, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said Wednesday.

Identifying population growth as one the biggest challenges, El-Sisi acknowledged the state had failed to persuade people to rein in birth rates. Egypt has 96 million people living in the country and at least four million abroad, with 2.5 million citizens added each year.

Egyptians won’t be able to feel the benefits of economic growth if the “rate isn’t appropriate,” he said at a youth conference. “This is something you know well.”