Egypt receives final $500m tranche of AfDB loan

Egypt has received the third and last $500 million tranche of a $1.5 billion African Development Bank (AfDB) loan which will support the government’s development programmes.

The loan was agreed in 2015 amid an acute foreign currency shortage that crippled import activity and had the country scrambling to find new sources of dollars as shipments piled up at ports and manufacturing slowed.

Egypt has since implemented tough reforms under a $12 billion IMF loan program agreed in late 2016 that involved deep cuts to energy subsidies, new taxes and a floated currency in a bid to draw back investors who fled after its 2011 uprising.