CAIRO – Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said that ratings agency Moody’s decision to place Egypt’s B3 foreign-currency and local-currency issuer rating on review for downgrade in May has shown full understanding of the external and internal difficulties and challenges facing the Egyptian economy.
In a statement released by the Finance Ministry, the minister said that Moody’s took its recent decision to continue the review for an additional three months is based on what the Egyptian government was able to take recently in terms of key structural reforms that stimulate investment and help improving the investment environment and empower the private sector to enhance its role and increase its contributions to economic growth.
Under an article titled “Egypt Review Continues at Moody’s Over Reforms, Cash Crunch”, Bloomberg said that “Egypt faces a continued review by Moody’s Investors Service, which said it’s weighing progress on the government’s reform agenda against factors including evidence of a further weakening in external liquidity.”
Moody’s three months ago started a review for downgrade of the nation’s B3 debt score, which is six steps below investment grade. Following a Moody’s cut in February, the rating is the lowest assigned by the three major credit assessors.
