Egypt Officially Receives IMF Final Tranche Worth $1.7 Bln

Egypt officially received the final tranche of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan amounting to $1.7 billion, bringing the total amount received by the state to $5.4 billion.

The last tranche was transferred to the accounts of the Ministry of Finance in the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), which supports Egypt's foreign reserves, and the return is given in Egyptian pounds as one of the sources of financing the state's general budget.

Last Wednesday, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund approved the disbursement of Egypt's third and final tranche of its $1.7 billion loan.

The Fund announced that the Executive Board of the Fund had completed the second and final review of Egypt's 12-month economic reform program.

Egypt had agreed with the International Monetary Fund on a one-year credit readiness program that began in June 2020, to face the repercussions of the Corona virus.

Celine Allard, the head of the IMF mission to Egypt confirmed earlier this week that Egypt does not need any external financing at the present time.

Allard said that the Executive Board of the Fund approved that Egypt has completed the credit readiness program and that there are no measures related to this agreement that have not been implemented.

She explained that the structural reforms in the future that Egypt should take is to provide a greater opportunity for the private sector to participate in growth and employ more workers.

"Among the reforms is the integration of Egypt with world trade, as the country has a great potential to grow its exports from the current rates, and work to reduce barriers to exports," Allard pointed out.

"Egypt is working to amend the current customs law, which would help support exports."

"There is still no new program with the Egyptian authorities after the end of the current program on June 30, noting that the fund will provide advice to the Egyptian authorities whenever they want."

The head of the IMF mission to Egypt explained that the first risks related to the Egyptian economy currently are the spread of the Corona virus not only in Egypt, but in the world, and the uncertainty left by the virus, given that it affects important sources for Egypt such as tourism.

On some of the remaining conditions of the economic reform program that Egypt implemented over a period of 3 years and ended in 2019, she said that the remaining elements are related to transparency and governance, and the Egyptian authorities have taken great steps in this matter.

She concluded there are some conditions for the government offering program, but this is a matter of the market and it is difficult to expect a date, explaining that the fund always exchanges visions with Egypt, especially in matters related to structural reforms to support growth.