President Abdel Fattah El Sisi held a meeting Saturday at the Presidential Palace with the Economic Group, a host of cabinet ministers overseeing the implementation of the nation’s economic reforms.
The president’s meeting with the Economic Group focused on the second revision of the national economic reform programme, which took place in co-operation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Presidency Spokesman Ambassador Bassam Radi said.
He added that discussions between the president and the members of the group focused on the success of this second revision.
The cabinet ministers briefed the president about the applause heaped by the IMF on the strength and resilience of the national economy in a series of statements in the past period.
They added that the IMF pinpointed the ability of the national economy to overcome the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the resilience of the economy in the face of the crises.
They noted that the IMF attributed the ability of the economy to overcome these challenges to the government’s timely and balanced response to the pandemic at the level of financial and monetary policies, which helped stabilise economic indicators and increased investors’ confidence in the national economy.
IMF experts also expect overall economic indicators to keep improving during the next fiscal year, members of the Economic Group said during the meeting with the president.
The ministers also noted that the IMF also praised Egypt’s strong performance during its implementation of the economic reform measures as well as its ability to achieve its targets.
They added that the international lending body also lauded the policies pursued by the Egyptian government to strike a balance between spending on the neediest social classes and important sectors, such as health.
The IMF also hailed the social protection programmes directed to vulnerable groups, on one hand, and the need to sustain financial conditions and increase foreign currency reserves, on the other, members of the group said during their meeting with President Sisi.
Meanwhile,the president directed the economic group to continue to pursue policies that can ensure the stability of national economic indicators, Ambassador Radi said.
He added that the president also ordered the group to diversify the sources of foreign currency revenues, advance the localisation of industries and increase local components in products manufactured in Egypt.
The president also asked the group to make the requirements of the industrial sector available and support the private sector on the road to maximising its contribution to the economy, Ambassador Radi said.
This has to be done to ensure the sustainability of economic growth and create more jobs, Radi quoted the president as saying during the meeting.
