Egypt expects to receive dedicated budget support of around $1 billion from the World Bank during the first half of 2024, according to Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat.
Al-Mashat, who also serves as Egypt’s governor at the World Bank, indicated in an interview with Al-Sharq Business on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that the $6 billion in financing announced by the World Bank Group last March over the next three years will be directed to the public and private sectors.
She pointed out that the government will receive $3 billion in financing, of which $500 million annually is allocated to support the budget, within the framework of the “Development Policy Support” program, linked to the structural reforms undertaken by the government, in addition to allocating a payment to support the budget of $200 million from the financing of the third part of the “Takaful and Karama” program, which supports the underprivileged, which will be available by next June.
Budget support will not be limited to this amount, as it will increase through “the participation of some bilateral countries,” for example, during the middle of this year, Egypt will receive an additional $200 million from Britain, according to the minister.
In March, the World Bank Group announced the provision of $6 billion in financing to Egypt over 3 years. The World Bank Group’s support came less than 24 hours after the European Union pledged to provide an aid package to Egypt.
As for the financing from the European Union amounting to $7.8 billion until 2027, $5 billion will be allocated to support the budget, according to Al-Mashat.
Al-Mashat indicated that work is underway with the “International Finance Corporation” affiliated with the World Bank on the program to offer state-owned companies and assets, noting that there is another program that Cairo is working on formulating with the World Bank related to the governance of state-owned companies.
