Egypti’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Saturday said that the results of the economic reform programmes, the government implemented recently, suggested that Egypt is on the right track.
“The economic reform programme’s results so far, suggested that we are on the right track,” said Al-Sisi during his speech on June 30 uprising anniversary, explaining, “Egypt’s reserve currency increased from $15bn to reach more than $44bn, which is a historical record.”
Al-Sisi asserted, “there is no doubt that the road to economic reform is difficult and rough, causing a lot of hardship, but not implementing those kind of reforms would cause more hardship,” adding, “Egyptians stopped a wave of extremism and division, which had been thought to sweep through the region,” elaborating that Egyptians, as usual, have the final say and are “unified with their state institutions” to confront “extremism.”
The president further noted that the Egyptian Armed Forces and security forces succeed in “besieging and halting the spread of terrorism in the country, despite the external huge finical, political support given to those militant groups.”
On Friday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board approved the completion of the third review of Egypt’s economic reform programme, allowing the Egyptian authorities to receive $2bn.
Tied to the three-year $12bn IMF loan agreement signed in 2016, Egypt implemented a series of austerity measures, including floating of the pound, raising taxes, and the removal of fuel and energy subsides. Earlier this month, Egypt raised fuel prices by 35.0%-66.6%, followed by new hikes in electricity prices.
On the other hand, the Egyptian Parliament approved the extension of national state of emergency for the fifth time for three years, since it was first declared in April last year, following two deadly bomb attacks targeted two churches in Alexandria and Tanta, killing at least 45 people and injured more than 100.
Meanwhile, Al-Sisi on Thursday officially appointed Major General Abbas Kamel as the director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Services (GIS) and Nasser Fahmy as the deputy chief of the GIS. In January, he appointed Kamel as interim chief of the GIS after the dismissal of Khaled Fawzi, who was serving as the chief of the GIS.