IMF head expects increase to Egypt’s $3 bln loan over ongoing challenges

During a meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Hassan Abdalla who is Egypt's Governor at the IMF, Georgieva praised the role played by the bank in managing the country's monetary policy during a period of exceptional difficulties.

The meeting – held on the sidelines of COP28 in the UAE - tackled Egypt’s efforts to expand the private sector's role in development and promoting structural reforms for fiscal and monetary policies.

On Saturday, Georgieva stated that the IMF is on the verge of advancing with the next steps in Egypt's $3 billion loan programme.

Key commitments for Egypt under this programme include implementing flexible interest and exchange rate regimes, promoting private sector participation in the economy, reducing debt and inflation levels to pre-pandemic figures by the programme's end, and offering stakes in 35 state-owned companies to strategic investors by 2024.

The country has been actively implementing the terms of the four-year loan programme, which allows Egypt to access $3 billion in eight installments, with hopes to increase it to $5 billion.

Cairo was slated to receive two more tranches in March and September of this year, but these were delayed. Egypt has yet to fulfill the two reviews stipulated in the loan agreement.