IMF: Egypt spent 4 times more supporting private sector that public health services

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The International Monetary Fund has said that the Egyptian government, after the outbreak of COVID-19, spent EGP 14 billion on health services compared to EGP 37 billion to support families and more than EGP 58 billion to support companies and the private sector. IMF’s data appeared in the first revision report regarding the stand-by arrangement with Egypt, according to which Egypt will get a $5.2 billion loan. The report depended on the data of the treasury, which revealed that only EGP 4 billion of the expenditure on the health services was directed to the medical staff, labour and employment, while the remainder was directed to purchase equipment and to the other operating expenses.

On the other hand, the funds of the pensions acquired the main bulk of the expenditure directed to family support with an EGP 27.6 billion share. Beforehand, the Egyptian government pledged EGP 100 billion additional expenditure to confront the COVID-19 crisis.