The 2021 annual Autumn meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are scheduled to take place on 11 October through 17 October, according to the IMF.
The IMF also announced that the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and Development Committee (DC) meetings will be held in a hybrid format due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Meanwhile, the IMF is expected to release its updated report on the world's economic outlook on Thursday, which sheds light on the global economy’s performance under the pressure of COVID-19 and its related implications.
The IMF and WBG said that they will continue to monitor the worldwide epidemiological situation and they are willing to amend the meetings’ plan in accordance with relevant guidance set up by the World Health Organisation and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The IMF and WBG buildings will only be open to essential staff and select ministers/governors and delegates attending the meetings.
During the last spring meetings, held in April, the IMF announced that Egypt is the second largest economy in the Arab region in 2020 with a total amount of $361.8 billion, following Saudi Arabia.
It also announced that the Egyptian economy has outperformed several economies in the Arab region despite the severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, surpassing oil economies in the region, including the UAE, Iraq, and Qatar.
In April, the IMF expected Egypt’s real GDP growth to deaccelerate to 2.5 percent in 2021, down from 3.6 percent in 2020, before rebounding by around the double to reach 5.7 percent in 2022.
It also projected Egypt’s inflation rate to decline to 4.8 percent in 2021, down from 5.7 percent in 2020, before soaring to 7.2 percent in 2022.
Moreover, the country’s current account balance is expected to continue performing negatively, going down to -4 percent in 2021 and 2022 compared to -3.1 percent in 2020, according to the IMF.
Egypt is also expected to experience an increase in its unemployment rate, reaching 9.8 percent and 9.4 percent in 2021 and 2022, respectively, up from 8.3 percent in 2020, according to the IMF.
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