Egypt Seeks US$3 Billion World Bank Loan to Support Budget

Cairo, Egypt, Capital Markets in Africa — Egypt will receive a US$3-billion loan from the World Bank in installments over the next three years to support the state’s budget, Finance Minister Hany Dimian said on the side-lines of an economic conference on Wednesday.

“The government is aware of the economic conditions which we’re passing through, and there is a deficit in the budget and we have to handle it gradually,” Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said in separate remarks at the conference.

Egypt’s fiscal year 2015/2016 budget projects a deficit of 8.9 percent of GDP and a 5 percent growth rate.

The prime minister said the government is looking to decrease the budget deficit by 1.5 percent per year while increasing the growth rate by 1.5 percent annually.
Egypt grew by 4.1 percent during the previous fiscal year.

Egypt will also receive $1.5 billion in loans from the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) and $2.5 billion in land sales to Egyptians abroad by the end of 2015 in order to boost foreign currency reserves, the prime minister said earlier this week.

Foreign currency reserves, which stood at about $36 billion before the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, were $16.335 billion at the end of September.