Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait affirmed that his country is looking forward to the International Monetary Fund's continued support for the Egyptian economy to overcome the current crisis, stressing that the new program that is being consulted with the Fund aims to support structural reforms to support the Egyptian economy.
Maait added in a statement after his meeting with the Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington that the Fund sees the extent of the Egyptian economy's ability to recover from the repercussions of the current global crisis, which he described as "severe."
The Egyptian Cabinet announced last month that Egypt submitted a request to the International Monetary Fund to start consultations on a new program that may include additional financing, noting that the program aims to support plans to continue comprehensive national economic reform in Egypt.
The Minister of Finance added that Egypt continues to enhance macroeconomic stability, the social protection umbrella, and the sustainability of positive growth rates by working to continue structural reforms and stimulating local and foreign investments to provide job opportunities to achieve economic goals by maintaining the primary surplus and reducing the deficit and debt ratios of the GDP.
The International Monetary Fund had raised its forecast for the growth of the Egyptian economy from 5.6% to 5.9% during the current fiscal year, and Standard & Poor's affirmed the credit rating of Egypt in both local and foreign currencies at the level of "B.B" with a stable future outlook, and Fitch affirmed Egypt's rating at a level of "B.B" «B+» with a stable outlook.
Egypt considered the decision of Fitch and Standard & Poor's as a new testimony of confidence in the economy's ability to recover from the repercussions of the crisis, noting that maintaining the rating despite the current circumstances would enhance confidence in the economy.
Maait noted that the economic, financial and structural reforms implemented by Egypt during the past years contributed to providing a strong and diversified local financing base and made the economy more capable of absorbing shocks and facing internal and external challenges, as Egypt achieved a growth of 9% during the first half of the current fiscal year, which is the highest rate Semi-annual growth since the beginning of the millennium.
He pointed out that the Standard & Poor's report talked about the possibility of considering a positive rating in the medium term, as the economic expansion in Egypt exceeds the expectations of the institution. The stable future outlook also reflects positive expectations of Egypt's ability to deal positively and flexibly with the repercussions of the Ukrainian crisis.
Standard & Poor's expected that the Egyptian economy would achieve a growth of 5.7%, that the total budget deficit would reach about 7% during the current fiscal year, and that the average debt life would reach 3.5 years instead of two years.
It also expected that the economy would continue to achieve a primary surplus as a result of completing structural reforms and developing the tax system through development and mechanization work that contributed to the integration of part of the informal economy into the formal system and contributed to the expansion of the tax base.
Egypt aims to reduce the budget deficit to 6.2% and reduce the debt rate to less than 90% by the end of the current fiscal year.
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