The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved on Wednesday disbursing 2 billion U.S. dollars as the final tranche of a 12-billion-dollar loan to Egypt to support the country’s economic reform program.
The approval came after a vote held by the New York-based financial institution’s board on Wednesday, Egypt’s official MENA news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying.
Egypt has already received 10 billion dollars of the IMF total loan.
The country started its IMF-supported three-year austerity-based economic reform program in November 2016, including local currency devaluation, fuel and energy subsidy cuts and introduction of value-added tax.
Despite consequent price hikes, the reform program achieved positive results with the country’s growth rate.
Egypt’s Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said last week that the economic growth hit 5.6 percent during the 2018/19 fiscal year that ended in late June, with a surplus in the state budget for the first time.
