The International Monetary Fund (IMF) declared Monday that Egypt is the only country in the Middle East and North Africa region that will achieve positive economic growth in the FY2020-2021 thanks to the economic reform program undertaken by the state since 2016.
The social protection programs saw an increase of more than 150 percent compared to pre-COVID-19 levels.
In addition, the report highlighted procedures taken by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) such as reducing interest rates by a cumulative 350 basis points since the beginning of the pandemic and until Sep.
Some of the factors that contributed to mitigating the repercussions of the pandemic are the affluence of foreign reserves and the flexibility of the exchange rate, the IMF noted.
Further, it forecast that Egypt will maintain the continuous increase in GDP and reach USD479.6 billion in 2025, compared to USD361.9 billion, USD332.1 billion, USD230 billion, USD94.1 billion, USD104.8 billion, USD63.3 billion, USD96.1 billion, USD48.8 billion, and USD23.5 billion in 2020, 2015, 2010, 2005, 2000, 1995, 1990, 1985, and 1980, respectively.
The report expected the deficit to drop to 5.2 percent in 2021-2022, compared to 8.1 percent in 2020-2021 and 7.5 percent in 2019-2020.
The IMF expected in the October issue of the World Economic Outlook, an increase in the growth rate of the Egyptian economy to 3.5 percent, which indicates the success of the economic and structural reforms as well as the government’s plan in handling the challenges that ensued from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
This came as Moody's Investors Service affirmed the long-term foreign and local currency issuer ratings of the Government of Egypt at B2.
Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's (S&P) Global Ratings maintained Egypt's "BB" long- and short-term foreign, and local currency sovereign credit ratings. S&P affirmed Egypt's outlook at "stable" despite the global repercussions of the novel coronavirus, which indicates the country's ability to cope with challenges and shocks.