A new loan from the AMF to support the financial sector: The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) is lending Egypt USD 615.8 mn under its Structural Adjustment Facility to support our financial and banking sectors, the Fund said in a statement.

Where will the money go? The loan will help upgrade the nation’s payment system s infrastructure, support financial inclusion and improve the regulatory framework for the banking and financial sector, the statement reads.

This isn’t the first time the AMF has lent us a hand: Egypt last year received a USD 368 mn loan from the AMF to aid our post-covid recovery, a year after getting the final tranche of a USD 639 mn loan from the fund. Including the new facility, the AMF has provided Egypt with a total of 16 loans by our count, worth an estimated USD 3.2 bn.

Remember: The government is still waiting on the IMF to decide a date for the first review of our USD 3 bn loan program, which will unlock the second tranche of the facility. A first review of the program has been on hold since mid-March after the country fell short of meeting several key conditions of the loan agreement.

The news got attention internationally: Bloomberg.

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