Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Egypt Denies Intention to Receive New IMF Loan


Fri 18 Oct 2019 | 11:37 PM
Taarek Refaat

The Egyptian cabinet's media center denied reports over the government's intention to acquire a new loan from the IMF, next January, to fund new reform programs.

The finance ministry rejected the reports as "baseless," the center said in a statement on Friday.

The ministry said there was no need for new loans, especially given the significant improvement in the Egyptian economy.

During the next phase, the government will cooperate with the IMF in the area of technical support, to move forward with solid fiscal policies aimed at reducing budget deficits and government debt, as well as securing new jobs for youth and women," the ministry added.

The ministry appealed to all mass and social media users to look for accuracy before publishing these baseless reports to avoid provoking public opinion.

It’s noteworthy that a delegation of the IMF visited Egypt last May to conduct a fifth review of the Extended Fund Facility, which concluded with an expert-level agreement with the Egyptian government.

The IMF’s meeting came days after Egypt applied the final reduction of fuel and electricity subsidies.

In November 2016, the IMF approved a $ 12 billion loan as financial aid to support the economic reform program.

For the past three years, Egypt began a courageous economic reform program that included the devaluation of its currency as well as introducing new taxes including a value-added tax (VAT) and reduced energy subsidies.