Egypt 2014 economic reforms obtain IMF-World Bank commendation

Egypt 2014 economic reforms received much praise at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings that ended earlier this week in Washington, with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, telling the Al-Arabiya news channel that she was very impressed by Egypt economic reforms, among them the partial lifting of energy subsidies and the introduction of new taxes targeted at the more affluent sections of the population.

The IMF/World Bank annual meetings allow international financial policy-makers to rub shoulders with each other. Last year Egypt participation at the annual meetings was low key, but this year Egypt sent a a good and strong delegation, as Lagarde described it, which included Minister of Finance Hani Kadri, Minister of Planning Ashraf Al-Arabi, Minister of International Cooperation Naglaa Al-Ehwani, and Central Bank of Egypt Governor Hisham Ramez.

While in Washington, the Egyptian delegation reviewed Egypt economic reforms and asked the IMF to send a team to assess the country economy in the framework of article IV regular annual consultations, necessary if the IMF is to underwrite future loans. The team will be arriving in November, with the last such assessment taking place in 2010.

Kadri has already said that he hopes the IMF team report will be ready ahead of a major donor conference on Egypt scheduled for February 2015. The government is hoping to raise as much as $100 billion at this conference to invest in mega projects aimed at creating jobs and promoting growth.