CAIRO, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Egyptian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on the second review of Egypt's economic reform program which will finalize granting Egypt two billion U.S. dollars, the IMF said in a statement on Friday.
"The staff-level agreement is subject to approval by the IMF's Executive Board Completion, upon which Egypt will receive the third tranche of 2 billion U.S. dollars of the three-year (IMF) loan," the statement added.
The IMF added that the agreement on the second review reaffirmed that authorities' commitment to their reform program.
Egypt's growth picked up during fiscal year 2016/17, with GDP rising by 4.2 percent compared to the projected 3.5 percent. Meanwhile, the current account deficit narrowed in dollar terms, supported by the non-oil exports and tourism receipts, it added.
"The Central Bank of Egypt remains committed to achieve its goal of reigning in inflation which is expected to decline to about 13 percent in the quarter ending December of 2018," the statement added.
Egypt agreed a three-year, 12 billion dollars IMF loan program in November that is tied to ambitious economic reforms such as subsidy cuts, tax hikes, enacting the value-added tax, as well as the devaluation of its local currency.
Egypt received an initial 2.75 billion U.S. dollars tranche from the IMF last November.
