Egypt’s debt to GDP ratio projected to decelerate to 82.6% in 2025: IMF

Azour made these remarks during a press briefing the IMF held on Thursday to release its Regional Economic Outlook report on the sidelines of the annual meetings (Spring Meetings) of the World Bank Group and the IMF in Washington.

He was responding to a question by Ahram Online about the IMF’s projections for Egypt’s overall debt and how Egypt is expected to tackle the debt path under the IMF’s loan program.

“This is one of the main pillars of our program with Egypt, which involves allowing Egypt to reduce gradually the burden of debt, the size of the debt to the GDP, and the debt service,” Azour told Ahram Online.

Egypt is currently engaging in an $8 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) loan program.

Azour pointed out that the increase in interest rates globally led to a further increase in debt service for several emerging and middle-income economies in the region.

The IMF, he said, strongly recommends that these countries address this issue decisively and move forward with the needed reforms to allow risk premiums to go down and also reduce the nexus of all the burdens these reforms when it comes to debt and debt restructurings could have on the local financial system.

In this respect, Azour stressed to Ahram Online that Egypt is excluded from countries with fragilities and vulnerabilities regarding their debt burdens.

Under the program, Egypt is expected to tame the debt level to below 80 percent by 2027.