Egypt and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have finalised an agreement on the components of the new programme and will issue an announcement "very soon," the country's Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said on Sunday. "Very productive bilateral discussions were held with IMF staff on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank's annual meetings in Washington, and significant progress was made across all policies," Maait added in a statement. Egypt has commenced talks with the IMF for a financial support package in March, soon after the Russian war in Ukraine erupted, which led foreign investors to pull nearly $20 billion out of Egyptian treasury markets in a matter of weeks. The North African country is hoping to stem a currency crisis that has restricted imports and sparked market unease over foreign debt repayments. In its own parallel statement on Saturday, the IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said the Fund had agreed with Egyptian authorities to finalise work to reach a staff-level agreement "very soon." The policies discussed, according to an IMF statement, involved monetary and exchange rate policies that "would enable Egypt to gradually and sustainably rebuild foreign reserves," public debt reduction, social safety net expansion, and increasing competitiveness in the economy. "We are proceeding with raising the efficiency of public spending, ensuring optimal utilisation of state resources, improving the budget structure, and enhancing financial transparency," Maait concluded.
