National Bank of Egypt head offices, the St. Regis Cairo hotel and Hilton Cairo World Trade Center Residences are seen towering above residential buildings. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported on Friday that during a staff visit to Egypt, they had fruitful conversations about economic reforms and policies that would be supported by an extended fund facility.
The IMF statement stated, “In the period ahead, we are continue our close engagement with the authorities toward obtaining staff-level consensus.
The IMF announced that Egypt had made a request for a new programme in March as it came under new financial pressure from the war in Ukraine.
Egypt has turned to the IMF three times in recent years, borrowing $12 billion under an Extended Fund Facility in November 2016, $2.8 billion under a Rapid Financing Instrument in May 2020, and $5.2 billion under a Stand-by Arrangement in June 2020.
Analysts say that because Egypt has exceeded its normal IMF borrowing quota, it would likely face exceptional access criteria, making it subject to a greater level of scrutiny.
Egypt’s central bank governor has previously said that the scale of any new funding is not expected to be large, given that Egypt has already taken a big allocation from the fund.
