Mursi hopes for 5.5% growth in Egypt next year

Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi said during a visit to Germany on Wednesday that he hoped for economic growth of 5.5 percent next year and of between 7 and 8 percent in subsequent years.

Mursi, whose one-day visit to Berlin is aimed partly at reassuring Western investors about economic prospects for his crisis-racked country, also said he saw around 750,000 new jobs being created in Egypt on an annual basis.

The World Bank recently forecast economic growth in Egypt of 2.6 percent this year and of 3.8 percent in 2014, rising to 4.7 percent in 2015.