IMF lauds government's policies to maintain market stability

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently lauded the financial and monetary policies undertaken by the Egyptian government to maintain confidence in the Egyptian market.

IMF experts said in their recent report that the Egyptian government's commitment to applying a flexible exchange rate system would lead to stabilization of the pound-dollar exchange rate and save the foreign reserves in the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

"Reducing the financial deficit, lowering the inflation rate, improving the debt servicing indices and accelerating the implementation of the structural reform will maintain the progress achieved in the Egyptian economic reform programme in the last ten years," the IMF report said.

The report further pointed out to the mounting pressures on the balance of payments in the last years as a result of the slowdown of the local market's activities.

The report stressed the necessity of removing the negative impacts of September 11 attacks on the performance of Egypt's economy, besides facing up to new challenges including accelerating the economic growth rates, creating new job opportunities and adopting well designed economic policies.

The report pointed to the decrease in non-oil imports by 10 percent in FY (2000-20001) while non-oil exports increased by 7 percent.

The report called for enhancing the number of trained human cadres to boost the labour market along with enlarging the private sector's role in the development process.