26 Jan 2022

In its January 2022 World Economic Outlook Report update, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) has significantly raised its forecast for the growth of the Egyptian economy in 2022. The updated forecast expects 5.6% GDP growth in 2022, a considerable jump from the 5.2% forecast in October 2021. The forecast for the entire MENA region was also upgraded by 0.3pp to 4.4%, with Egypt comfortably outperforming that figure. According to the IMF, the world is forecasted to grow on average by 4.4%, emerging markets by 4.8%, and advanced economies by 3.9%.

The Chief Economist at the IMF chose to speak about Egypt in particular when discussing the MENA region during the press conference for the launch of the January 2022 update of the report. She said that the MENA forecast’s upgrade is mainly driven by better prospects for oil-exporting countries due to higher oil prices. She said that on the other hand, there was no improvement in conditions for oil-importing countries, “…but there is one country that stands out in the group of the oil importers, and that is Egypt. And for Egypt, we have an upgrade of 0.4pp this year; so, we are projecting growth to be 5.6%. So, for the Egyptian economy, I think it’s fair to say that the impact of the pandemic has been well managed.”

(Source: IMF (English), Zawya (English), Egypt Today (English), Daily News Egypt (English), al-Maal, al-Ahram, al-Youm al-Saabe, al-Masry al-Youm, al-Shurouk, Akhbar al-Youm, Sada el-Balad, al-Sharq Business, al-Arabiya, CNN, RT)