Cabinet publishes infograph on keeping Egypt's credit rating by Moody's, S&P

CAIRO - 23 April 2020: The Cabinet's media center on Thursday published an infograph about keeping Egypt's credit rating unchanged, despite the economic repercussions of the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

International credit rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P) maintained the country's credit rating at B2 with a stable outlook.

This was ascribed to the success of the economic reform program in building sound economic foundations that help the country to deal with any crises, including the coronavirus pandemic, the center said.

The center added that Moody's kept Egypt's credit rating unchanged, given the expected growth rates backed by the implementation of economic and financial reforms since 2016, as well as an improvement in the monetary policy.

Moody's also predicted that the country's external liquidity will remain sufficient to absorb shocks, in spite of the negative impact of the coronavirus crisis on the economic activity and the foreign reserves, the center noted.

Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's expected that the rate of investments will reach 17 percent of the gross domestic product in 2021, as a result of taking a number of measures to raise consumption and increase public and private investments, the center said.

The financial rating agency S&P forecast that Egypt will achieve a growth rate of 2.8 percent in 2020, compared to 5.6 percent in 2019, while the average inflation rate will hit 6 percent in 2020, against 13.9 percent in 2019.

According to the agency's estimates for 2020, the country is expected to see a decline in the trade deficit by 11.1 percent of the GDP, while the unemployment rate would stand at 7.5 percent.