By Ehab Farouk

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed told Reuters on Saturday that she projected foreign direct investment in the country had reached $8 billion to $8.5 billion in the 2016-17 fiscal year which ended in June.

Speaking on the sidelines of a news conference, Saeed said the government was targeting a 20 percent increase in foreign direct investment in the 2017-18 fiscal year which started this month.

Foreign direct investment in Egypt rose 12 percent in the first nine months of the 2016-17 fiscal year to $6.6 billion compared with $5.9 billion in the same period a year earlier, the investment ministry said earlier on Saturday.

Saeed told a news conference that the economic growth rate for 2016-17 would not fall below 4 percent and for the fourth quarter of 2016-17 not below 4.5 percent.

The government had projected a growth rate of 3.8-4 percent for the full fiscal year 2016-17.

Saeed said she expected the initial budget deficit for 2016-17 to come in at 10.4 to 10.5 percent. The real deficit for the 2015-16 fiscal year was 12.5 percent.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Richard Balmforth)