Kristalina Georgieva, Director General of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed that the program for financing the Egyptian economy is close to being implemented.
She added in a statement to Al-Sharq: “I can confirm that Egypt will have full support from the Fund.” In response to a question about whether this would happen in the first quarter of next year, she replied: “Yes, very soon.”
Georgieva, who spoke with Al-Sharq at the COP 28 climate summit held in Dubai, did not clarify whether the Fund would abandon some of its proposals to liberalize the Egyptian economy, or whether Cairo would be the one that would respond to the Fund’s demands, including a commitment to flexibility in the pound’s exchange rate.
Accelerating the IPO program for government companies. She simply said: “We are currently working with the Egyptian authorities, who are doing a good job in very difficult circumstances, to set priorities regarding providing support to the population in need, and creating better opportunities to develop the private sector, and we will accomplish this work.”
Egypt has been seeking for several months to revive the Fund’s program to finance it with $3 billion, and even increase it to $5 billion, a program that was actually frozen after Cairo obtained the first installment following the conclusion of the agreement last year, as it was supposed to obtain two tranches of the loan in March and September. From the current year, which required a review each time by the Fund of the extent of the Egyptian authorities’ compliance with the terms of the agreement.
Egypt has devalued the local currency three times since early 2022, in an attempt to address the severe crisis it faces in the dollar scarcity, with inflation rising and the currency losing nearly half its value.
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