Cairo – Mubasher: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its forecast for Egypt’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for fiscal year 2020/2021 to 2.8%, compared to a previous forecast of 2% in June.
This reflects “the milder than-anticipated contraction” in the country’s economy, with expectations that Egypt would likely be among the few countries to register positive growth rate of 1.5% in 2021, the IMF said in a recent report.
The IMF’s Executive Board competed and approved the first review of Egypt’s $5.2 billion standby loan (SBA) agreement, meaning that the country can withdraw the second tranche of $1.67 billion.
The international financial institution expects the country to witness modest recovery in all sectors except tourism, “which is expected to see a much more protracted recovery.”
The most populous Arab nation’s GDP growth is forecast to recover to 5.5% over the medium term.
Average inflation is expected to slow to about 5% in FY20/21, but it has to settle at around 7% in the medium term as economic activity recovers, the IMF noted.
