IMF to review Egypt’s reform program twice in September

IMF to review Egypt’s reform program twice in September

A former advisor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Fakhry al-Fiqi said Saturday that the second review to the Egyptian economic reform program will take place mid-September, after the government agreed with the IMF to include the the first review in the process.

The IMF’s first review was originally scheduled for March, but failed to take place.

He added that the IMF did not announce the cessation of the financing program for Egypt, which comes in accordance with a reform program agreed upon between the two sides and includes numerous procedures and requirements.

Contact is still on-going between the government and the IMF, he said.

Fiqi – who heads the Parliament’s Plan and Budget Committee – ruled out a new devaluation of the currency – or “floating” – during the coming period by the Central Bank of Egypt, because this measure “may harm social peace,” he said.

He stressed that the CBE has been striving recently to rebuild international reserves of foreign exchange (amounting to about US$35 billion) according to the latest recent statistics of the bank.

Fiqi pointed out that the IMF asked the government to continue applying the policy of flexibility in the exchange rate, but the continued scarcity of foreign exchange locally may