With its economy reeling from Covid-19, Egypt has been relying on a steady stream of multilateral funds to balance its books. It has bagged $8bn from the IMF: $2.8bn in emergency funding and a hastily-arranged $5.2bn Stand-By Arrangement (MEES, 12 June). More recently, the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on 15 July announced that is has disbursed a total of $3.85bn since March “to the Central Bank of Egypt and other Egyptian Banks.” With the EBRD also chipping in $100mn last month, the country’s under-pressure foreign reserves rose to $38.2bn at end-June (MEES, 10 July).
Of the Afreximbank’s cash, $3.55bn falls under its Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (Patimfa), which aims to help member countries “deal with the economic and health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.” The bank has also provided $300mn to the National Bank of Egypt to “support activities aimed at expanding intra-African trade.” (CONTINUED - 411 WORDS)
