Macro-financial risk
2026-04-26
11 minute read
17 sources
Egypt at the Anchor: IMF EFF Year Two, the Ras El Hekma Cushion, and the Suez and Military Economy Reset
The March 6, 2024 IMF program expansion to USD 8 billion and the USD 35 billion Ras El Hekma sale to ADQ rebuilt Egypt's external buffer and broke the FX peg, but Suez Canal revenue collapsed 60 percent, debt service consumes more than half of revenue, and the military economy reform agenda remains the binding constraint.
On March 6, 2024 the IMF Executive Board augmented Egypt's Extended Fund Facility from USD 3 billion to USD 8 billion and the Central Bank of Egypt floated the pound, devaluing it from roughly 30 to 50 per US dollar in a single session. Two weeks earlier, on February 23, 2024, ADQ of Abu Dhabi committed USD 35 billion for the Ras El Hekma...