Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said that Egypt would receive the second tranche of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) loan by the second half of June, worth $1.25bn. The total amount of the loan is $12bn.
The minister added, during a meeting held on Sunday, that the Egyptian economy’s main indicators are currently under evaluation and revision by the IMF’s delegation and the government.
It is worth mentioning that the IMF has approved a three-year loan programme worth $12bn in November.
However, El-Garhy stated that the main indicators are working normally and in a good way.
He explained that the government’s programme includes many reforms that have come into actions such as the value-added tax (VAT), pound flotation, and subsidy cuts.
However, there are many reforms, such as the Investment Law, which is to be approved on Sunday, that will fix the economic environment, El-Garhy noted.
Moreover, the minister stated that Egypt is probably to issue international treasury bonds by the end of May or the beginning of June.
He said that issuing bonds would create financing sources for the next fiscal year’s (FY) budget. The minister said that the government is studying the issuing of $1.5bn in April, according to Reuters.
The Ministry of Finance raised the maximum limit of issuing bonds to $7bn.
The last issuance raised the registrations of debt instruments to $4.1bn instead of $950m, El-Garhy noted.
On another issue, El-Garhy said that raising the interest rate is the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) responsibility.
Regarding subsidy cuts in the next FY, he said that the ministry did not decide on anything yet.
