By Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Egypt Independent
Published on 2024-01-21 09:44:56
A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), headed by Ivanna Vladkova Hollar, the leader of the fund’s mission to Egypt, commenced discussions in Cairo on Saturday concerning the first and second reviews of the reform program supported by the IMF through the Extended Fund Facility.
According to an IMF spokesperson, Jihad Azour, the Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, visited Egypt earlier in the week for the annual meeting of its local offices for the Middle East, North Africa, Caucasus, and Central Asia regions. During this visit, Azour met with government officials and regional stakeholders.
The IMF team also held discussions with Hala al-Saeed, the Egyptian Minister of Planning and Economic Development, as well as Ayman Soliman, the CEO of The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE), assistant ministers, and senior officials in the ministry. Saeed presented details of the structural reform program and provided information on the accomplishments and growth rates.
The IMF team also inquired about the expected cash flows to the TSFE from future projects and commended the design of the structural reform program. They also discussed the recent historic hotel sale deal completed by the government in collaboration with the private sector and TSFE, including the transfer of the deal’s value to the government’s accounts and its impact on the public treasury and debts.
Further technical meetings are planned with leaders of the Planning Ministry and senior officials of TSFE, focusing on the preparation of the plan, investment priorities, planning system, economic development, and projects.
The IMF team did not address full devaluation of the Egyptian currency or an increase in financing for the Egyptian program. Additionally, they did not discuss the timing of transferring the two late tranches of the loan, worth about $700 million out of a total of approximately three billion dollars. Egypt has so far received one tranche worth US$347 million.
The IMF team is scheduled to continue meetings with several ministries in the coming days, including Finance, Petroleum, and Transport, as well as the Central Bank of Egypt, to review the progress of the economic and structural reform program.
Fakhri al-Fiqi, Chairman of the Plan and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives and former IMF expert, anticipates that upon completing the review, the IMF will increase the financing program and transfer the two late tranches. He also stated that the value of the loan can be increased to allow the government to pay its obligations in installments, which amount to about $5.5 billion until June.
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