Egypt receives final tranche of 2 bln USD loan from IMF

Source: Xinhua| 2019-08-05 19:35:22|Editor: Shi Yinglun
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CAIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Egypt received on Monday two billion U.S. dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is the last tranche of a 12-billion dollars loan, Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told independent Yom7 news website on Monday.

"Egypt will focus on promoting structural reform program, maintaining sustainable development and fixing sectors to boost local industries in the coming period," Maait said.

The last two billion dollars have been added to the account of the Central Bank of Egypt which will increase the country's cash reserve of foreign exchange to more than 46 billion dollars compared to the current 44.3 billion dollars, according to Maait.

The country started its IMF-supported three-year austerity-based economic reform program in November 2016, measures of which included local currency devaluation, fuel and energy subsidy cuts and introduction of value-added tax.

Despite consequent price hikes, the reform program achieved positive results with the country's growth rate that recorded 5.7 percent during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2018/2019.

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