(Washington) The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday approved the US$3 billion loan to Egypt that was announced on October 27, with an immediate disbursement of US$347 million, it said. the organization in a press release.
Egypt will benefit from this 46-month loan, under the Extended Credit Facility (MEDC). The agreement relates to 2350.17 million SDRs (special drawing rights, IMF unit of account which is based on a basket of five major international currencies), corresponding to approximately 3 billion dollars.
This financial support was granted in exchange for an economic program aimed at “preserving macroeconomic stability, restoring shock absorbers and paving the way for sustainable, inclusive and private sector-led growth”, underlines the IMF, based in Washington.
He mentions in particular “a permanent transition to a flexible exchange rate regime”, as well as the establishment of a “monetary policy aimed at gradually reducing inflation”.
The measures must also make it possible to reduce the public debt, “while increasing social spending”, and put in place “large-scale structural reforms”.
Egypt is expected to benefit, over the life of this loan through the MEDC program, from additional financing of around US$14 billion “from its international and regional partners”, the IMF added.
The Egyptian authorities have also requested to benefit from an amount equivalent to SDR 1 million, under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, which helps low-income or vulnerable countries to face the difficulties of longer term, related to climate change or pandemic preparedness in particular.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine dealt several blows to Egypt: the world’s largest importer of wheat, it suffered the brunt of soaring cereal prices, and lost a good part of its Ukrainian and Russian tourists. – 40% of the 8 million visitors in 2021. Cairo has continued to devalue its currency, more or less gradually.