Arab Monetary Fund grants Egypt $339mn-loan

The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) has signed an agreement with Egypt to provide new loan worth Dinar 78.880 million (US$ 339 million) within the framework of the Structural Adjustment Facility.

The agreement was signed Sunday by Egyptian Central Bank’s (CBE) governor Hesham Ramez and AMF’s chairman Abdulrahman Al Hamidy.

The loan aims to support the Egyptian central bank’s efforts to strength banking supervision and governance, in order to achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth and enhance the resilience of the Egyptian economy in face of external shocks.

The program is composed of three pillars: developing the government financial securities depository system, strengthening the banking sector’s efficiency, and enhancing the role of the credit guarantee company to support financing small and medium size enterprises.

According to a statement released by AMF, Egypt has benefited from thirteen loans provided by the Arab Monetary Fund, including the present loan, with a total value of US$ 1.6 billion.

The statement added that the Fund has provided, through its subsidiary the Arab Trade Financing Program (ATFP), lines of credit to 21 national agencies in Egypt to finance intra Arab trade activities.

The ATFP signed 104 credit line agreements with these agencies, valued at US$ 1.9 billion by the end of August 2015. This brings the total financial support provided by the Fund to Egypt to about US$ 3.5 billion.