Saudi Arabia provided more important points on the terms of the extension, adding its duration. Egyptian state media commented on the announcement.
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Egypt’s economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer, most of which came from Russia and Ukraine. In the aftermath of the war in Eastern Europe, Egypt has struggled to cope with skyrocketing inflation, which peaked at more than 16% in October.
Egypt’s “personnel points agreement” with the IMF last month is expected to last 46 months and aims to solve Egypt’s inflation challenge and restructure its economy. Under the terms of the initial agreement, the Egyptian government introduced a series of rapid economic reforms, adding an accumulation in its key interest rates and a transition to a flexible exchange rate.
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Egypt won a $12 billion bailout from the IMF in 2016, when President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi embarked on an ambitious reform program that led to rising prices.
In recent years, regional allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pumped billions of dollars into Egypt to prop up its economy battered by years of political turmoil that rocked the country after the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 revolution.
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About a third of Egypt’s 104 million people live in poverty, according to government figures.