IMF: Egypt managed to overcome September 11 implications
Egypt, Economics, 4/23/2002

Egypt proved to be one of the most successful countries in dealing with the implications of the terrorist events witnessed in the US on September 11 and overcoming the crisis which struck the global economy, according to a report issued recently by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"Within this context, the government managed to adopt a series of effective economic measures to handle all negative impacts of the September 11 without imposing further burdens on the citizens," said the report.

"The current deficit in the balance of payments hit $ 358.2 million during the last quarter of FY 2001/2002 at an increase of 32.2 percent due to a retreat in the tourism revenue," the report noted.

"Meanwhile, an improvement at the value of $ 600 million was witnessed in the trade balance due to the surge in the non-oil exports, the decline in the movement of imports and the expatriates remittances," the report said.

On the same note, IMF Arab group representative Abdel Shakour Shaalan recently said that the Egyptian government is capable of managing the external debt, which is still within the safe margin and is repaying the installments regularly in accordance with the program agreed upon with the donors and within the context of the economic reform plan which started in the early nineties.

Moreover, Egypt has not asked for drawing up new programs with the IMF for rescheduling its external debts, he added, noting that there is no similarity between Egypt's economic conditions and that of Argentina.

Moreover, Shaalan said the Egyptian government succeeded in retaining a considerable volume of foreign currency reserve in spite of the economic impacts of the September 11 events at the world level, thanks to the wise Egyptian economic policies.

"Egypt was keen in its reform programs with the IMF, to protect the low-income brackets through a number of mechanisms, atop of which is the Social Fund for Development (SFD) which is most appropriate in implementing the IMF policies," he added.

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