The International Monetary Fund’s executive board approved Egypt’s fifth and sixth reviews under its Extended Fund Facility and the first review under its Resilience and Sustainability Arrangement, clearing the way for $2.273 billion in financing, while flagging slow progress on privatization and warning about swelling public debt, according to an IMF statement issued late Wednesday.
The decision unlocks the next round of IMF disbursements at a moment when Egypt is trying to cement last year’s shift to a more flexible exchange rate and restore investor confidence, even as the fund presses Cairo to accelerate state asset sales and curb borrowing.
The approval follows Egypt’s 2022 EFF deal, the IMF’s March 2024 review sign-off after the pound’s floatation, and the decision to raise the package to $8 billion from $3 billion. In March 2025, the IMF also approved a $1.3 billion loan for Egypt under the Resilience and Sustainability Arrangement.
A Finance Ministry source familiar with the IMF file had previously said Egypt expected the the fifth tranche, which has been delayed since July, to be released alongside the sixth tranche and the resilience and sustainability financing in early March, or by mid-month at the latest.
The IMF praised improvements in Egypt’s foreign-currency indicators, including a narrowing current-account deficit to 4.2% of GDP, supported by tourism revenues and remittances from Egyptians working abroad.
It said the stronger external position, alongside exchange-rate flexibility, helped lift gross reserves from $54.9 billion in December 2024 to about $59.2 billion as of December 2025.
But it added that while macroeconomic stability has become more entrenched, progress on structural reforms under the program has been uneven.
In that context, the fund said efforts to shrink the state’s footprint, especially progress in the government’s divestment program, were slower than expected, while high public debt and elevated gross financing needs continue to constrain fiscal space and weigh on medium-term growth prospects.
In its fourth-review report, the IMF criticized the slow pace of privatization, noting that only nine of the 35 targeted companies had been completed, with most cases involving sales of state stakes rather than full companies.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has repeatedly said the government wants to press ahead with privatization. He has said the government is looking at listings in sectors it had not previously included, such as companies linked to the armed forces or granting concessions to operate Egyptian airports. On the ground, however, implementation has fallen far short of the fund’s expectations.
The IMF said Egypt’s primary surplus missed the program target, citing the absence of planned divestment proceeds.
Government sources told Al Manassa the state has rejected offers to buy its assets because they were too low, pointing to deals such as the attempted privatization of Banque du Caire.
