Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian government will carry out a new wave of fuel subsidy cuts in due time, finance minister Amr El-Garhy told CBC channel.                                                                                                                            

El-Garhy said that the decision had nothing to do with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that a plan was put in place since 2014 involving the gradual reduction of subsidies to guarantee the financial safety of the oil and electricity sectors, as well as the country’s budget.

On Saturday, an IMF mission arrived in Cairo for a two-week visit to conduct the first periodic review of the economic reform programme, in preparation for giving Egypt its second tranche of a loan, amounting to $1.255 billion.

Egypt is currently undertaking a three-year economic reform programme that has so far included a flotation of its local currency, as well as the gradual reduction of subsidies.

As for the surging inflation levels, the finance minister told the news channel that the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) was in talks with the IMF to deal with the inflation issue.

Egypt’s inflation surged to 32.55% in March 2017 following the flotation of the Egyptian pound in November 2016.