CAIRO, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said on Friday that credit-rating company Moody's Ratings (Moody's) revising its outlook on Egypt from negative to positive shows "confidence in Egypt's macroeconomy management in a challenging period."
In a press statement, Maait said that Moody's revision "paves the road for improving the crediting ranking of the most populous Arab country."
On Thursday, Moody's said in a statement the positive outlook reflects the marked change in Egypt's economic policy, including the flotation of the Egyptian local currency and an increase of interest rates by 600 points.
Moody's also referred to other factors, including an expanded 8-billion-U.S. dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a 35-billion-dollar investment deal with the United Arab Emirates, which are expected to help avoid another build-up of external imbalances and enhance the economy's resilience to shocks over time.
All these developments will help cover the financing gap until the fiscal year 2025-2026, which ends in June 2026, according to Moody's.
Maait said that the ministry is in intensive communications with other world rating and investment institutions to explain the government's recent financial reforms and economic policies in a bid to raise Egypt's credit rating in the coming months.
He added that Egypt plans to reduce the public debt-to-GDP ratio to less than 80 percent within the next three years.
On Wednesday, Egypt signed a financing agreement with the IMF to increase an initial 3-billion-dollar loan deal to 8 billion dollars.
On the same day, the Central Bank of Egypt raised its interest rates by 600 basis points and said it would allow the exchange rate to be determined by the market to ensure a smooth transition to a flexible inflation-targeting regime.
