Tourists walk at a popular tourist area named "Old Market" in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

(Reuters) -Egypt's GDP grew by 5.3% in the first quarter of its 2025/26 fiscal year compared with 3.5% in the same period a year earlier, the planning ministry said on Thursday, boosted by the government's economic and structural reforms.

Planning Minister Rania Al-Mashat said Egypt was targeting economic growth of around 5% for the fiscal year to the end of June 2026, up from a previous target of 4.5%.

The Arab world's most populous country has been struggling with the aftermath of a sharp currency devaluation, soaring inflation and the economic fallout from the war in Gaza.

Growth slowed to 2.4% in 2023/24 but the government has since accelerated economic reforms under an $8 billion programme with the International Monetary Fund and secured $24 billion in investment from the United Arab Emirates' sovereign wealth fund, including a major land deal on the Mediterranean coast.

(Reporting by Momen Saeed Atallah. Editing by Alison Williams and Mark Potter)