IMF agrees on $5.2b loan for Egypt

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CAIRO: Egypt and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached a staff-level agreement on a $5.2 billion standby arrangement that aims to alleviate the economic impact of Covid-19. The IMF in a statement said that one-year standby arrangement, which is subject to approval by the IMF’s executive board, follows the $2.8 billion in emergency financing that the North African nation secured last month under the fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument, as part of the country’s plan to cover its funding gap. The IMF said that in response to a request from the Egyptian authorities, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Uma Ramakrishnan held virtual meetings from May 19 to June 5, 2020 with the Egyptian authorities to discuss IMF financial support for the authorities’ policy plans to ensure macroeconomic stability and a strong economic recovery. The Arab world’s most populous nation in late 2016 secured a three-year IMF program, taking a $12 billion loan and steeply devaluing the currency and cutting subsidies. Those moves helped rekindle investor interest battered in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising – a revival most notable in the debt market, where record-high interest rates made the country an emerging-market darling. TLTP