Oct 16 (Reuters) – Egypt has finalized a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the components of its program and will make an announcement “very soon”, the country’s finance minister said on Sunday.
“Very productive bilateral discussions were held with IMF staff on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Washington, and significant progress was made across all policies,” Mohamed Maait said in a communicated
Egypt began talks with the IMF for a financial support package in March, shortly after the Ukraine crisis left its finances in disarray and prompted foreign investors to pull nearly 20 billion dollars from the Egyptian treasury markets in a matter of weeks.
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It hopes to curb a currency crisis that has restricted imports and caused unrest in the market over the payment of foreign debt.
In its own parallel statement on Saturday, the IMF said it had agreed with Egyptian authorities to finalize work on reaching a staff-level agreement “very soon”.
The policies discussed, according to the IMF statement, included monetary and exchange rate policies that would “enable Egypt to gradually and sustainably rebuild foreign reserves,” the reduction of public debt, the expansion of the safety net social and the increased competitiveness of the economy.
“We are proceeding to increase the efficiency of public spending, ensuring optimal utilization of state resources, improving the budget structure and improving financial transparency,” said Maait.
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Reporting by Moataz Mohamed; written by Nafisa Eltahir; Edited by Louise Heavens
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