The International Monetary Fund will this week begin its delayed fourth review of Egypt\u2019s 46-month loan programme, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The review had originally been scheduled for the end of September.<\/p>\n
It comes under an agreement Cairo signed with the IMF in April, expanding an original loan from $3 billion to $8 billion to help Egypt manage its economic challenges.<\/p>\n
The fourth review will unlock $1.2 billion in new financing.<\/p>\n
At a Cairo joint news conference with IMF\u2019s managing director Kristalina Georgieva, Madbouly said the IMF team would start work on the review on Tuesday \u201cwith Egypt\u2019s central bank and relevant ministries\u201d.<\/p>\n
Georgieva praised \u201cthe commitment and the strength of the actions Egypt has already taken\u201d.<\/p>\n
She cited moving to \u201ca flexible exchange rate regime\u201d, boosting \u201cthe role of the private sector as a source of growth and jobs\u201d and consolidating \u201csocial protection by moving away from untargeted subsidies\u201d.<\/p>\n
The IMF chief acknowledged the challenges faced by the country\u2019s economy amid regional conflicts.<\/p>\n
She said \u201cconditions have become more difficult for no fault of your own, but because of the conflict in your neighbourhood\u201d.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Sunday, Georgieva met President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.<\/p>\n
A statement from the presidency quoted Sisi as saying Egypt \u201cwould prioritise easing the burden of inflation on citizens\u201d, focusing on curbing rising prices, attracting investments and empowering the private sector.<\/p>\n
The government raised fuel prices last month by up to 17 percent after inflation hit 26.4 percent in September.<\/p>\n
Last month, Sisi said his government might reconsider the loan programme if it creates \u201cunsustainable public pressure\u201d.<\/p>\n
He cited challenges from ongoing regional instability, particularly the prolonged conflict in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Despite the rising cost of living, Georgieva said Sunday Egyptians \u201cwill see the benefits of these reforms in a more dynamic, more prosperous Egyptian economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said she expected inflation to slide to 16-17 percent by the end of this fiscal year (to June 2025) after peaking at 37 percent.<\/p>\n
Jihad Azour, the IMF\u2019s Middle East and Central Asia director, last week also acknowledged challenges faced by Egypt\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
In addition to the Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan conflicts, he cited a significant decline in Suez Canal revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reduction in trade volume going through the Suez Canal has affected revenues by more than 60 to 70 percent on average, which would represent $4.5 to $5 billion in revenues,\u201d Azour said.<\/p>\n
In May, the IMF said traffic through the canal dropped by 66 percent the previous month as ships avoided Red Sea shipping lanes to avoid attacks by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.<\/p>\n
The post IMF to begin delayed review of Egypt loan programme: Egyptian PM Mostafa Madbouly<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post IMF to begin delayed review of Egypt loan programme: Egyptian PM Mostafa Madbouly<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The International Monetary Fund will this week begin its delayed fourth review of Egypt\u2019s 46-month loan programme, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Sunday. The review had originally been scheduled for the end of September. It comes under an agreement Cairo signed with the IMF in April, expanding an original loan from $3 billion to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}