The IMF Egyptian Assistance Program, One Year On

The financial assistance program to Egypt by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), approved in November 2016, has scored important achievements, even as it has presented Cairo with complicated economic and political challenges. Ongoing monitoring of the economic-political developments over the past year in Egypt, coupled with a close reading of the IMF’s first annual review of the program, show that Egypt still faces a difficult uphill journey. The regime’s challenge is twofold: it must draft a comprehensive, inclusive social contract that will gain public legitimacy for the difficult but necessary reforms; at the same time, the regime must convince the international arena that it is adhering to the outlines of the reforms agreed upon with the IMF.