Sisi follows up on measures to deal with fallout from global economic crisis

CAIRO – 10 May 2022:  President Abdel Fattah El Sisi directed on Tuesday the government to form a working group to regularly assess the import system and follow up on measures taken to meet the needs of the production sector, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said.

President Sisi's instructions came during his meeting with the economic ministerial group, including Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt Tarek Amer, Planning Minister Hala El Said, International Cooperation Minister Rania el Mashat, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, Public Business Sector Minister Hisham Tawfik, Trade and Industry Minister Nevin Gamea, and Presidential Advisor for Financial Affairs Major General Mohamed Amin.

The working group will be headed by the prime minister.

The meeting followed up on the work of the ministerial group and its measures taken to deal with the repercussions of the global economic crisis.

During the meeting, Amer reviewed the current monetary situation, saying the Egyptian economy managed to absorb the severe global repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

He noted that the country was able to maintain a safe financial and economic path, a balanced monetary situation, as well as stable foreign exchange reserves.

In this regard, President Sisi directed the attendees to exclude production inputs and raw materials from the procedures recently announced to regulate the importing process.

The governor reviewed the evolution of the performance of the balance of payments in 2021 and the preliminary indicators during the period from January to March 2022, which witnessed increases in petroleum products and natural gas, in addition to an increase in tourism revenues and revenues of the Suez Canal, and the remittances of Egyptians abroad.

Sisi issued directives to bodies concerned to exempt production requirements and raw materials from the recently-adopted import measures.

As per the president's directives, imports of production supplies and raw materials will be subject to the old system, which requires collection documents, said Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said on Tuesday.

President Sisi also ordered forming a working group under the chairmanship of the prime minister and with membership of the Central Bank of Egypt governor, the finance minister, the trade and industry minister and other bodies concerned to periodically follow up and evaluate the import system.