IMF Reaches Personnel Agreement for 12 Month Stand-By Arrangement for $ 5.2 billion

Egypt: IMF reaches staff-level agreement on 12-month stand-by arrangement for $ 5.2 billion

5th June 2020

The end-of-mission press releases include statements from IMF staff teams delivering preliminary results after visiting a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IMF Executive Board. Based on the preliminary results of this mission, the staff will prepare a report which, subject to management approval, will be submitted to the IMF Executive Board for discussion and decision.

• Egypt’s Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) – following support from the IMF’s Rapid Finance Facility (RFI) – aims to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, maintain macroeconomic stability, strengthen the social safety net and reform to support private sector growth and job creation.
• Funding from Egypt’s international partners will be crucial to support key reform goals and ensure reform success.

Washington, DC –
At the request of the Egyptian authorities, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, led by Uma Ramakrishnan, held virtual meetings with the Egyptian authorities from May 19 to June 5, 2020 to seek financial support from the IMF for the authorities’ political plans to be discussed to ensure macroeconomic stability and a strong economic recovery. At the end of the virtual interviews, Ms. Ramakrishnan made the following statement:

“I am pleased to announce that the Egyptian authorities and the IMF team have reached a staff-level agreement on an economic policy that could be supported by a 12-month stand-by agreement (SBA). The SBA, with a requested access of 3.8 billion SDRs (equivalent to around 5.2 billion US dollars), supports the efforts of the authorities to maintain macroeconomic stability amid the COVID-19 shock while pushing ahead with important structural reforms. This will secure the progress Egypt has made over the past three years and place the country on a solid foundation for sustainable recovery and higher and more inclusive growth and job creation in the medium term. The SBA will also aim to support health and social spending, improve fiscal transparency and drive further reforms to stimulate private sector-led growth and job creation. The deal is also expected to catalyze additional bilateral and multilateral financial assistance.

“This agreement requires the approval of the Executive Board of the IMF, which is expected to examine Egypt’s application in the coming weeks.”