IMF ready to support Egypt economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is ready to support Egypt's economy in any possible way for its benefit, an IMF official said Wednesday.
During a press conference over the phone in Washington, Christopher Jarvis, who led the IMF's Mission for Egypt in December, and advisor at the IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department, said Egypt had not requested any financial package from the fund so far.
A technical cooperation program is underway between the Fund and the Egyptian authorities to evaluate effects of the global economy on Egypt, he said.
Jarvis stressed that the IMF will partake in Egypt's March economic conference to exchange views with Egyptian officials.
Speaking about the IMF's report on the Article IV consultations over Egypt, Jarvis said the report sought to provide an objective assessment of the Egyptian economic developments and policies.
"For a number of years, Egypt has suffered from insufficiently inclusive growth and high unemployment," he said, adding that things started to turn around in the last few months after the Egyptian authorities embarked on an economic reform program to raise growth, create jobs, and contain fiscal and external deficits and the loss of foreign exchange reserves.
"On the expenditure side of the budget, the [Egyptian] government started to reform the system of energy subsides," Jarvis said.
He underlined that the Fund closely follows up steps taken by Egypt to improve the investment climate, atop of which is the issuance of the new investment law.