Cairo – Mubasher: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) is expected to maintain its tight monetary policy as long as inflation does not start a downward trend, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated on Saturday.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided to maintain the current interest rates unchanged during March. 

Egypt’s inflation is expected to reach 15.8% during the fiscal year 2018/2019 and decline to 12.8% in FY19/20, the IMF added.

The North African country is planning to cut inflation to 9% in the fourth quarter to 2020.

The IMF also stated that the Egyptian authorities are committed to achieving full recovery of cost by the end of the fiscal year 2018/2019 for all fuel products, except for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel oil used in bakeries and electricity generation.

The international organisation revealed that Egypt’s international reserve was expected to grow to $45.4 billion during the fiscal year 2019-2020, compared to $44.9 billion in FY18/19.

In November 2016, the IMF agreed to grant Egypt a $12 billion loan under the North African country’s economic reform programme.

Earlier in April, Moody’s reported that Egypt was expected to achieve a 1.7% budget surplus during FY19/20, with the budget deficit recording 7.5%.