The US Treasury Department announced that Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with senior Egyptian finance officials in Washington – today, Tuesday – amid talks between Cairo and the International Monetary Fund regarding additional financing assistance.
The ministry said, “Yellen will meet with Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, International Cooperation Minister Rania Al-Mashat, and Central Bank Governor Hassan Abdullah.”
Egypt suffers from high levels of external debt, and has been severely affected by the war in the Gaza Strip, which threatens to disrupt tourism bookings and natural gas imports, and by recent attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea.
The country is living under the weight of an economic and financial crisis, due to the shortage of foreign currency, the sharp decline of the pound, which is now sold on the black market at the level of 50 to 52 pounds per dollar, the exit of foreign investments, and the increasing volume of the country’s external debt, which has reached approximately 165 billion dollars, of which about 29 billion Dollars due in 2024.
A $3 billion loan program that Egypt had agreed with the IMF in December 2022 faltered after it did not allow its currency to float freely or make progress in selling state assets.
The fund postponed the disbursement of about $700 million expected in 2023, but it said last December that it was in talks to expand the program, given the economic risks resulting from the war between Israel and Gaza.
The International Financial Corporation did not comment on whether the Egyptian authorities would also meet with its officials during their visit to Washington.
The meeting comes as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visits the Middle East as part of a new campaign to prevent the war in Gaza from turning into a regional conflict.
