Egypt has doubled down on support for the country’s private sector, making EGP200 billion ($12.6 billion) of funding available as the central bank seeks to boost the economy. The move is in keeping with the central bank’s policy to bolster the economy. The CBE wants to deepen access to finance and it is also a way to avail cheap funding for the important sectors of the economy. There are no figures on how much of this funding is aimed at capital expansion which will affect the overall assessment of the initiative.
Amount has now been doubled due to its success in helping more than 4,500 companies during an economic crisis driven by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The private sector is also lagging behind due to red-tape. The World Bank has urged Egypt to address constraints in a bid to generate “a strong, private sector-led economic transformation”. The measures should also “focus on measures such as lifting non-tariff trade barriers, fostering a level-playing field between the public and private economic actors, and facilitating access to key inputs such as land and skilled labour”. The move comes as Egypt’s external debt reached $111 billion in 2020, up from $48 billion in 2015.