IMF reaches staff-level deal with Egypt that could unlock $1.6 billion

The International Monetary Fund said on Monday it had reached a staff-level agreement with Egypt on reviews of two financing arrangements, potentially unlocking about $1.6 billion pending approval by the fund's executive board.



The agreement would make available about $1.5 billion under Egypt's Extended Fund Facility and about $136 million under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, bringing total disbursements under the arrangements to about $7.2 billion, the IMF said.



The IMF said the impact of the war in the Middle East on Egypt's economy had remained "relatively contained", helped by "timely and decisive" policy measures including fuel and electricity price adjustments, curbs on government energy consumption and spending reprioritisation.



Egypt's economy is still trying to absorb the impact of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has cast a shadow over its precarious economic stability, given its reliance on foreign portfolio inflows as a source of financing and gas imports as a key source of energy.