President El-Sisi Holds Meeting with the PM, MoF and Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies

President El-Sisi met today with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait and Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies Ahmed Kouchouk.

As stated by the Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency, the meeting looked over the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the Fund’s program with Egypt.

His Excellency applauded, during the meeting, what the report on the Fund’s program with Egypt stated: IMF experts praised the Egyptian economy’s performance that exceeded all expectations despite the COVID-19 pandemic. This was due to good governance along the quick, comprehensive and balanced stimulus measures taken by the government, preceded by the proper and exact execution of the economic reform program throughout the past years.

In this context, the Minister of Finance showcased the published estimates by the IMF regarding the global economy performance in 2020, which insured that the Egyptian economy showed a great deal of strength and capabilities of handling the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data indicated that the Egyptian economy is the second highest international economic growth during this time with a 3.6% real GDP growth. The report also showed that Egypt is among the 15% of countries that achieved positive results across the globe, and it being the only country to cross the 2% real GDP growth in 2020 in the MENA region.

The Minister of Finance also presented the headlines of the IMF published report that include:

• Expressing appreciation to the proper implementation of the economic reform program.
• Praising the initiatives of the Egyptian financial sector towards the most affected sectors and groups.
• Assuring that the strong role of the Egyptian government helped in achieving all the targets and raising the indicators of the program in Egypt, including the accumulation of the net foreign exchange reserves and the primary surplus of the budget, thus exceeding the objectives set in the program.
• Praising the new law that simplifies customs regulations.
• Praising the liquidity and good profitability of the Egyptian banking system.
• Appreciation for the financial policy of the Egyptian government for its adequate focus throughout the 2021/2020 fiscal years on supporting the urgent priorities for the health sector, protecting the most vulnerable groups and supporting the negatively affected sectors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Noting the balance and effectiveness of the bundles and programs of financial support which were announced and executed by the Egyptian government and the Ministry of Finance in comparison with what has been done in other countries. The government and the ministry managed to achieved the highest positive effect on the economic activities through these measures that targeted the sectors with the highest priorities.