Reaching deal with IMF, launching index for EGP among recommendations of Egypt’s Economic Conference

Ahram Online , Tuesday 25 Oct 2022

Reaching a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and launching an index for the Egyptian pound were among the top recommendations suggested by the Egypt Economic Conference 2022 as it concluded on Tuesday.

Egypt Economic Conference 2022
A general view of Egypt Economic Conference 2022 on Tuesday 25 October, 2022. Photo courtesy of Egyptian cabinet Facebook page.

 

General Coordinator of the National Dialogue Diaa Rashwan announced during the closing ceremony recommendations that touched upon monetary and financial policies, the promotion of the private sector’s participation in economic activities, and top economic sectors.

The monetary and financial policy recommendations included speeding up the process for reaching an agreement with the IMF.

Last week, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the Ministry of Finance announced that Egypt and the IMF had reached an agreement on the economic and structural policies and reforms for Egypt’s new IMF-backed economic reform programme.

Egypt had filed a request with the IMF in March to secure a new loan under a fresh economic reform programme to address the harsh impacts of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the Egyptian economy.

The recommendations also included the importance of supporting exchange rate flexibility to reflect market dynamics of supply and demand as a tool for absorbing external shocks in addition to activating the derivatives market as a hedging tool against the risks of exchange rate scarring.

Launching an index for the Egyptian pound based upon of currencies of Egypt’s major partners and gold in addition to decreasing the debt-to-GDP ratio are among the recommendations announced by Rashwan.

The recommendations for promoting the participation of the private sector in economic activities included initial public offering (IPO) of stocks of public sector companies to enhance private sector contributions to the economy and to expand the ownership base.

The National Dialogue coordinator added that among the recommendations is transferring the ownership of several state-owned companies to the Egypt Sovereign Wealth Fund and introducing financial and tax incentives for the private sector to invest in education.

For the top economic sectors, Rashwan said the conference recommended boosting local production and increasing exports through the program of facilitating and repaying export expenses.

The conference also recommended developing a plan to promote the Egyptian real estate market globally as well as establishing an industrial zone for information technology industries in the country.

For the agricultural sector, the conference, which was attended by 1,200 participants, recommended supporting agricultural cooperatives and associations by implementing structural, financial and administrative reforms.

Rashwan said that the recommendations of the dialogue as well as the economic conference will turn into decisions and legislation.

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