Egypt Central Bank Governor: IMF loan talks a “likely scenario”
After the last few years of economic instability which Egypt has experienced—including an exodus of foreign money, rising inflation, unemployment and a ballooning public debt, among others—things are at last beginning to look on the up. Egypt finally took the step in July to slash subsidies on fuel, a move many had been calling for for years. The government also recently raised 8.5 billion US dollars in under a week for the Suez Canal development project via a highly successful public offering. And at this year’s IMF and World Bank fall meetings in Washington, the country’s recent reforms received positive reactions, most notably from IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, previously scathing in her assessment of some of Egypt’s economic policies.