Fitch increases his credit rating for Egypt.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Fitch Ratings, the global credit rating agency, said Thursday it raised its credit rating from B to B + with a stable outlook.

"Egypt has made further progress in implementing economic and financial reforms, which have improved macroeconomic stability, financial inclusion and strong external financing," the government said in a statement. a statement.

Fitch added that the Egyptian authorities would complete the three-year roadmap with the International Monetary Fund in 2019, explaining that these reforms would continue to generate better economic results going beyond the IMF agreement.

Egypt is implementing a program of economic reform in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), under which it will receive a $ 12 billion loan from the fund, of which US $ 10 billion has already been received and is expected to receive final payment of $ 2 billion in June.

Egypt's foreign exchange reserves were $ 44.06 billion at the end of February.

Fitch said the public debt-to-GDP ratio continued to decline, supported by improvements in the structural budget and budget surpluses.

Egypt will reduce the fiscal deficit to 8.6 percent of GDP in FY 2018/2019, thanks to a 28 percent increase in revenues and a 17 percent reduction in spending on an annual basis. .

The global rating agency predicted that the country's spending on salaries, subsidies and benefits would fall by about 5 percent of GDP between June 2016 and June 2020. The country's monetary policy also aims to reduce the country's spending. inflation to less than 10% and increase foreign exchange reserves. Foreign to cover 6 months of current payments.

Egypt intends to reduce its budget deficit to 7.3 percent in FY 2019-2020, thanks to lower interest rates and debt reduction, as well as a new round of support through a fuel pricing mechanism.

From Fitch's point of view, the Egyptian government will be able to reduce the deficit to 4.5 percent of GDP by 2020 and the public debt-to-GDP ratio to rise to 93 percent in 2020, compared to 93 percent in 2018, which peaked in 2017 with 103%. .