Egypt on Thursday has been named the Best Sovereign Debt Management Office (DMO) in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the World Bank and IMF newspaper GlobalMarkets. GlobalMarkets has also announced Egypt's Mohamed Maait the Finance Minister of the Year in the Middle East and North Africa. The Finance Minister award is granted according to a poll of 25,000 of policy makers worldwide including central bank governors, finance ministers, and private sector, and international corporation representatives. Maait was granted the award in recognition of his works on improving Egypt's macroeconomic signs which has led to a push in the Fitch and Moody's credit ratings, the newspaper added. He will be handed the award in a celebration held in Washington on 19 November on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. GlobalMarkets said that Maait has succeeded in decreasing public debt to the GDP due to his policy on restoring financial control and rearranging expenditures. Egypt has achieved the financial objectives of the IMF-backed economic reform programme it adopted in late 2016, it added. Banks now have more room to lend the private sector, growth has been stimulated, and government debt has decreased, all key macroeconomic reforms that have restored balance in Egypt's economy, according to GlobalMarkets.
