URGENT: IMF approves 3rd review of Egypt’s loan programme

The IMF Executive Board completed early on Tuesday (CLT) the third review under the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Egypt. Successful review allows the Egyptian government to draw the equivalent of about US$820 million (SDR 618.1 million).
The IMF lauded the Egyptian government’s recent efforts, the foremost of which is free floating the local currency, to restore macroeconomic stability that have “started to yield positive results”, despite elevated inflation rates.
The IMF urged the Egyptian government to continue their decisive implementation of the economic reform programme. It also urged the Egyptian authorities to pay particular attention to strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation and containing fiscal risks from the energy sector to generate some fiscal space to expand social spending in support of vulnerable groups.

The IMF Board also called for accelerating Egypt’s divestment programme to implement the State Ownership Policy.

Attribution: IMF statement.