Egypt received the approval of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday for its fourth tranche of its $12 billion loan. The IMF approved the $2 billion loan after reviewing Egypt's economic reform programme for the third time, in accordance with the Egyptian-IMF $12 billion agreement. The approval of this loan brings the total amount of disbursements since the beginning of the program to around $8.02 billion, according to an IMF statement. This comes as part of an agreement Egypt signed with the IMF to receive a $12 billion in loan over three years, as an Egyptian attempt to fix its economy. An IMF delegation visited Egypt in May for 16 days to review the latest results of the its economic program. The fourth tranche of the loan comes six months after the third one, which Egypt received in December 2017. Following the visit, the IMF issued a statement, congratulating Egypt on the progress it made economically. The statement noted that Egypt has begun to reap the benefits of its ambitious and politically difficult economic reform programme. While the process has required sacrifices in the short-term, the reforms were critical to lay the foundation for strong and sustained growth that will improve living standards for all Egyptians. "Egypt's growth has continued to accelerate during 2017/2018, rising to 5.2 percent in the first half of the year from 4.2 percent in 2016/17. The current account deficit has also declined sharply, reflecting the recovery in tourism and strong growth in remittances, while improved investor confidence has continued to support portfolio inflows. In addition, gross international reserves rose to $44 billion by the end of April, equal to 7 months of imports," the statement continued. In an attempt to fix its economy, Egypt obtained an IMF loan in 2016 in exchange for going through a rigorous reform program, beginning with floating the pound. Source: Egypt Independent
