IMF mission chief: Egypt economic reform continues to pay off

WASHINGTON - 22 Nov 2017: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission Chief for Egypt Subir Lall said Egypt's economic reform program continues to pay off, asserting that cooperation overwhelmed his recent talks with senior officials at the Egyptian government.

In statements to MENA, Lall termed as "good" the track of Egypt's economic reform progam, noting that the "clear-cut" measures taken by the government at the level of politics started to bear fruit, citing the recent market confidence, growth rate and reduction in state budget deficit.

He also said foreign currency reserve has reached to its highest levels since 2011, adding that the inflation rate has recorded a steady decrease over the past three months.

The IMF official continued to say that he has been following up the recent measures taken to lure investments of the private sector in the economic development plans as well as creating large number of job opportunities at the special economic zones of the Suez Canal Corridor and other areas across the country.

As regards the monetary policies adopted by Egypt, the IMF official said the recent decisions of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) were focused on guaranteeing the setback of inflation which has reached its peak in July.

Lall also termed CBE's decisions on interest rates as "appropriate" so as to achieve inflation reduction, explaining that the decisions of stabilizing the interest rate aimed at guaranteeing the progress achieved as per the inflation decrease.

He said the IMF is following up the opinions of economic rating agencies such as Standard and Poor's which affirmed Egypt's B/B-rating with outlook remaining stable. The official also said that the IMF is currently preparing a comprehensive assessment for Egypt's economic performance.

The official also said the IMF backs the finance minister's incentives for the small and medium-scale projects which could give a boost to the unofficial economic sector.