IMF reaches staff-level agreement on second payment of Egypt loan

The International Monetary Fund has reached Friday a staff-level agreement on a second payment that would make $1.25 billion available to Egypt and bring its total disbursements to about $4 billion.

The IMF has said in a statement that the agreement is “a vote of confidence” by its staff in support of Egypt’s economic reform programme.

It is still subject to approval by the organization’s executive board.

Egypt’s finance minister said a week earlier that the second instalment was expected in the second half of June. A first instalment of $2.75 billion dollars has already been paid out.

Egypt secured the $12-billion three-year loan last November after taking a set of tough economic measures including reducing subsidies, enacting the value-added tax, and the devaluation and subsequent floatation of its local currency.

Source: The Associated Press