Cairo aims to reduce its budget deficit for the 2014-15 fiscal year by more than originally envisaged, necessitating spending cuts that will largely come from curbing energy subsidies that have crippled government finances.

The cabinet this week signed off a final budget with a deficit of E£240bn ($33.6bn), after new President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi had refused to sanction an earlier draft that projected a deficit of E£288bn ($40.2bn). (CONTINUED - 936 WORDS)