A senior Egyptian official revealed to Bloomberg that Egypt will lift the subsidy for the 95 octane gasoline in March and the new prices will be announced by the end of the month. According to the anonymous official, the government plans to lift the subsidy off of the other grades of gasoline, 92 octane and 89 octane, in September 2019. The new prices, however will be announced next summer. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) delayed its fifth installment of the three-year USD 12 billion loan to Egypt for a month, because of some amendments in the government’s economic reform program. The source said that IMF persisted that the government should announce the new gas prices on the agreed dates.“The [pricing] mechanism links local fuel prices to international ones, and is a key part of the government’s plans to cut costs,” the official said. After the IMF’s Executive Board reviewed Egypt’s economic reform program, the IMF is sending Egypt the fifth installment of USD 2 billion as part of the extended fund facility arrangement. In total, after receiving the fifth installment, Egypt would have received USD 10 billion of the USD…
