Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s economic growth is expected to stand at 4.8% in fiscal year 2017/2018, according to a recent report by the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday.

Moreover, the growth rate is projected to reach 5.5% in FY18/19 on the back of investors’ restored confidence, the AfDB added.

The bank also forecast the North African country’s inflation to drop to 21.2% and 13.7% in FY17/18 and in FY18/19 respectively.

Given that the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that Egypt’s annual inflation rate fell to 22.3% year-on-year in December 2017.

The board of directors of the AfDB has approved a $500-million loan to finance Egypt’s Economic Governance and Energy Support Program Phase III.

This is the third and last tranche in a series of three annual loans worth a total of $1.5 billion, the AFDB added in a statement.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Egypt's outlook to ‘Positive’ from ‘Stable’ while maintaining the North African nation's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'B'.

Moody's Investors Service projected Egypt’s economic growth to accelerate from 4.2% in 2017 to 5% by 2019 and 5.5% by 2021.