Egypt's H1 2016/17 budget deficit narrows to 5 pct: Finance Minister

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's budget deficit in the first half of 2016/17 narrowed to 5 percent from 6.3 percent in the same period a year earlier, Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy said on Wednesday. In July, when its financial year starts, Egypt had forecast a deficit of 9.8 percent for 2016/17. The central bank abandoned the pound's peg of 8.8 per dollar in November and the pound has since halved in value. (Reporting by Asma Alsharif, editing by Larry King)