Egypt cut its economic growth forecast for the current fiscal year 2015/16 after the downing of a Russian passenger jet last year battered tourism, Finance Minister Hany Kadry Dimian said Monday. The forecast was revised to a range of 4% to 4.25% from a previous estimate of 5%. The crash “has had an impact on tourism,” Dimian said. “Tourism is one of the major sectors, not just as a driver of growth and one of the biggest sources of current-account receipts but because it has a higher multiplier impact on other” industries, he said. Dimian also estimated the budget deficit at between 11% and 11.5% of GDP for the current fiscal year ending June 30. This is higher than the government’s original target, in part because of the “lower growth rate that we now anticipate,” he said. Dimian said authorities were pressing ahead with economic reforms.   Our comment: We have revised our real GDP growth forecast downwards back in November, bringing it to 3.7% from an earlier 4.2% in reflection of lower tourism revenues and rising inflation. We have recently highlighted that we are yet to see further downside risks to our revised estimates in light of recent measures by both the government and the Central Bank to curtail imports of a number of finished consumer goods in order to preserve the country’s foreign reserves. On an expenditure basis, we see downside risks for both consumption and investment in light of tighter foreign exchange liquidity environment, higher inflation and efforts by authorities to dampen consumer lending. (Bloomberg, Mohamed Abu Basha)