The Ministry of International Cooperation has denied media reports that Egypt received $1bn in grants from Kuwait last week. Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Hassan said on Saturday that Egypt’s last aid Egypt agreement was the $350m loan from Saudi Arabia for electricity projects and promoting Saudi exports to Egypt signed on 1 November.
An Egyptian government source had told Reuters on Thursday that Egypt has received $1bn from Kuwait on 3 November.
After the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Kuwait has given Egypt a $1bn non-refundable grant and a five-year $2bn deposit to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). Kuwait also supplied Egypt with $1bn worth of petroleum products, bringing the total value of aid from Kuwait to $4bn.
The Kuwaiti aid was part of the $12bn total of Gulf aid, from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after Morsi’s ouster to help the country boost its foreign reserves and meet its import needs. The petroleum authority received approximately $4.8bn in grants from the three Gulf countries during the second half of 2013.
Kuwait has continued to financially assist Egypt. The international cooperation ministry disclosed in October that the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) will grant Egypt a $100m concessional loan for the West Cairo power station.
Meanwhile, Egypt will repay $2.5bn deposit to Qatar at the end of November, Reuters reported on Thursday, to bring the total funds returned to Qatar to $6bn. Qatar provided about $7.5bn in loans and grants to boost Egypt’s struggling economy during the turmoil that followed the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Egypt’s foreign reserves stood at $16.909bn at the end of October, marking a $37m increase from $16.872bn in September, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced on Thursday.
