Egyptian economy is gradually recovering: IMF

Egyptian economy is gradually recovering: IMF

Egypt was among the few countries that managed to maintain positive growth last year during the COVID19 crisis, and the Egyptian economy is gradually recovering, said Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Azour added that Egypt was able to maintain strong reserve levels and high liquidity in the banking system while having a stable and positive primary balance in the budget. He stressed that this crisis had an impact because of the nature of the economy, indicated that some sectors such as tourism were most affected. He mentioned that the fund has responded very quickly in supporting Egypt last year, it provided $8.5bln of financial assistance to Egypt at the beginning of the crisis through a rapid facility and then also through a complimentary stand by arrangement. “And this year where the distribution of SDRs, Egypt will get around $2.8bln, which is more than $10 bln since the beginning of the crisis. This is the total amount of support that the fund has provided to Egypt,” he revealed. Going forward, Azour said that similar to many other countries, the main challenge is vaccination. He said that it’s important to