The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Egypt's fifth and sixth reviews under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) will be combined into a single review scheduled for the fall. During the IMF's regular press briefing on Thursday, spokesperson Julie Kozack stated that the decision to combine the reviews stems from the need for more time to finalise key policy measures. "The discussions suggest that more time is needed to finalise the key policy measures, particularly related to the state's role in the economy and to ensure that the critical objectives of the programme, the authority's economic reform programme, can be met," she explained. " For that reason, the Fifth and Sixth Reviews under the EFF will be combined." She added that the question of whether the Fifth and Sixth disbursements will be made together remains part of the ongoing discussions. "It would be premature for me to speculate at this stage," she said, noting that the talks will consider "what are Egypt's financing needs and around that, what should be the size of the disbursement around the combined Fifth and Sixth Review." Moreover, Kozack said the IMF's May 6–18 mission to Cairo was productive noting that Egypt had made progress under its macroeconomic reform programme, including improvements in inflation and a rise in foreign exchange reserves. She emphasised the importance of deepening reforms to reduce the state's economic footprint, improve the business environment, and advance the asset divestment programme. These steps, she said, are "critical to really enabling the private sector to drive stronger and more sustainable growth in Egypt." On the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), Kozack stated that its first review is aligned with the Sixth Review under the EFF. Attribution: Amwal Al Ghad English Subediting: M. S. Salama
