Egypt’s economy has ‘strong’ precautionary reserves against external shocks: IMF

June 2018: Egypt enjoys “strong” precautionary reserves that support its economy’s capability to face external shocks, said International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Mission Chief for Egypt Subir Lall.

Lall told MENA on Saturday that the impact of the tight global financial conditions on Egypt is relatively weak, at a time that all countries, including emerging markets, have been affected.

Lall attributed that fact to Egypt’s success in adjusting its financial conditions as well as the amount of foreign reserves at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), in addition to the framework of policies outlined by the government in view of rational public monetary and fiscal policies and keeping a flexible exchange rate.

Earlier, the CBE announced an increase in the net foreign currency reserves by dlrs 1.418 billion at the end of April to hit dlrs 44.029 billion for the first time in history.

“Egypt’s current economic reform program is continuing to maintain concrete results with respect to achieving macroeconomic stability and further economic growth as well as bringing down unemployment rates,” Lall pointed out.

He underscored that the current economic reforms represent a key pillar of stability.

In may, the IMF mission visited Egypt to conduct the third review of the economic reform program implemented by the Egyptian government.

During the visit, the IMF staff team and the Egyptian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on the third review of Egypt’s economic reform program, which is supported by the IMF’s SDR 8.597 billion (about $12 billion) arrangement.