The International Monetary Fund praised the measures taken by Egypt to confront the "Covid-19" crisis, including the economic stimulus package launched by the government at a value of 100 billion pounds, representing 1.8% of the GDP, in addition to the central bank lowering interest rates by 300 basis points, and improving the ability to conduct tests to detect people infected with "Covid-19", provide health care, and apply social distancing rules to limit the spread of the virus, which are all reasons that encouraged the IMF team to approve the loan.
The IMF stated in its report on the state of the Egyptian economy, on the occasion of the recent approval to lend Egypt $5.2 billion to confront the repercussions of the Coronavirus, that Egypt is sufficiently capable of repaying the loans owed to the IMF, as improvements in the country's financial and external situation will ensure continuous access to markets and adequate capacity to repayment, as well as continuous participation in extending the deadlines of official deposit obligations owed by the Central Bank for longer maturity periods even after the end of the program.
The International Monetary Fund revealed that Egypt's external debt rose to 119.6 billion dollars by the end of the fiscal year 2019-2020, which ended at the end of last June, but at the same time it expected Egypt's ability to repay the debt. The fund raised its debt forecast to $126.7 billion by the end of the current fiscal year that ends in late June 2021, and then to $127.3 billion at the end of June 2022, before falling back in the next two years to about $119 billion.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
