Egypt Expects 2nd IMF Tranche in June

Egypt expects to receive the second installment of its loan from the International Monetary Fund in the second half of June, Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy said on Sunday, Reuters reported. He told a news conference that the IMF’s review of Egypt’s economic reforms was going well. The IMF approved a $12-billion, three-year loan program to Egypt in November and paid out $2.75 billion of the first $4 billion tranche of the loan. An IMF team is in Cairo this week conducting a review of Egypt’s reform efforts to decide when the next $1.25 billion will be disbursed. Meanwhile, Egypt’s budget deficit between July and February hit 7% of the GDP, compared to 8.2% for the same period last year as revenues of the third biggest economy in Africa accelerate, a recent report issued by the ministry of finance revealed. The country’s budget deficit during those eight months registered EGP 226.6 billion ($13 billion) in the aforementioned period during fiscal year 2016/2017, compared to EGP 222.9 billion during the same period in the last FY.