The annual Spring Meetings kicked off Monday in Washington, and will continue until April 24, amid the participation of finance ministers from all over the world.
It is expected that the meetings will dominate the economic repercussions of the conflict in Ukraine on the global economy, while the Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, and the country director of the World Bank in Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti, Marina Wess, discussed, a few days ago, development cooperation to support the government’s plan and strengthen the capacity of the main economic sectors. To deal with challenges and economic crises.
Egyptian parliamentarian: The loan may reach 3.5 billion dollars
Dr. Fakhry El-Feky, Head of the Planning and Budget Committee in the Egyptian House of Representatives, a former expert at the International Monetary Fund, said that the upcoming annual autumn meetings will be held in Morocco, pointing to the start of negotiations between Egypt and the Fund to obtain a new loan amounting to between 3 and 3.5 billion dollars.
El-Feki added, in exclusive statements to Sky News Arabia, that the Egyptian economy needs funding ranging from 10 to 12 billion dollars during a certain period of time to face the repercussions of the global economic crisis and the Russian-Ukrainian war locally on goods, supply chains, wheat, petroleum, and others that are imported.
The head of the Plan and Budget Committee explained that the agreement with the Fund gives confidence to the rest of the international financial and financing institutions, bodies and international banks to support the Egyptian economy and contribute to stabilizing the situation, but this requires the government and the Central Bank of Egypt to take proactive measures.
El-Feky expected that the new general budget, which will be implemented next July, will reflect more strict measures, in addition to the actions of the Central Bank of Egypt, which it started by raising the interest rate by 1%, depreciating the value of the pound, and new increases in the interest rate will be approved during the current year.
According to the Egyptian parliamentarian, the month of May may witness a further rise in the inflation rate, compared to the current month of April, to reach about 14%, with the results of the decision to liberalize the exchange rate appearing.
Egypt and the International Monetary Fund talks
According to International Monetary Fund officials, the ongoing talks between Egypt and the Fund regarding a new program will take a large part of the talks.
The World Bank expects insufficient and uneven growth in the Middle East and North Africa region during this year against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis, and the Bank said that the region will be affected by high food and oil prices, especially countries with high net imports including Egypt.
The World Bank also expected that Egypt’s economy would register a growth of 5% for the fiscal year 2023/2022, down from 5.5% expected for the current fiscal year.
Egypt has previously obtained loans from the International Monetary Fund, amounting to about $20 billion since 2016, as part of the implementation of the economic and social reform program, as well as rapid financing to face the repercussions of Corona, and it is planned to obtain a new loan during the coming period to implement structural economic reforms However, it is not yet clear about its value or details of the program.
#Egyptian #parliamentarian #billion #face #repercussions #global #crisis