Egypt reaches staff-level deal with IMF for $1.6b

Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli welcomed the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the 7^th review of the country’s 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme and the 2nd review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).

Subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board, the agreement will unlock approximately SDR 1.11 billion (around $1.5 billion) under the EFF, in addition to SDR 100 million (about $136 million) through the RSF.

Madbouli praised the IMF’s assessment of Egypt’s economic performance, highlighting the IMF’s recognition of the government’s swift measures to mitigate the impact of the Middle East conflict.

These included rationalising energy consumption across government entities, reprioritising public spending to ease external and fiscal pressures, and expanding social protection for vulnerable groups.

The prime minister also noted that, according to the IMF, Egypt’s real GDP grew by 5% in the third quarter of the 2025/26 fiscal year, bringing average growth for the first nine months of the fiscal year to 5.2%.

The IMF further reported that Egypt exceeded its fiscal targets by the end of March 2026, with stronger-than-expected tax revenues and a primary surplus outperforming projections while overall spending remained within the approved budget. The primary surplus is expected to rise from 4.8% of GDP in FY2025/26 to 5% in FY2026/27.

The IMF also acknowledged progress under the RSF programme, including integrating climate considerations into public investment planning, strengthening climate risk analysis in fiscal policy, mobilising private climate finance, and enhancing financial resilience, disaster risk financing, water resource management, and emissions reduction frameworks.