File Photo: Egyptian minister Saher Nasr in the middle heading the meeting with World Bank officials (Photo: the international cooperation ministry)
Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr signed a second $1 billion tranche loan agreement with the director of the World Bank in Cairo on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved the release of the second tranche of a $3 billion loan package to support Egypt’s economic reform programme, according to a statement on the international cooperation ministry’s website.
In 2014, Egypt embarked on a plan to introduce a number of fiscal reforms, including fuel subsidy cuts that raised prices by up to 78 percent, as well the imposition of new taxes to ease a growing budget deficit, currently estimated at 12.2 percent of GDP.
Egypt received the first tranche of the loan, worth $1 billion, in September.
The current portfolio of the World Bank in Egypt includes 25 projects with a total commitment of about $8.5 billion.
Short link: