Dr. Mohamed Maait, Executive Director and Head of the Arab Group at the International Monetary Fund, stated that Brent crude prices have dropped from $90 to the sixties range; however, the exchange rate affects the cost.

He added in a televised interview on the program “Kalima Akhira” aired on “ON E” that Egypt’s automatic pricing mechanism for petroleum products every three months takes cost price into account, citing a decision to reduce petroleum prices once when global price declines coincided with the exchange rate at that time.

Responding to a question about the positive impact of Egypt’s credit rating upgrade on its borrowing capacity from international institutions, he said, “In one word, yes.”

He explained that global financial institutions determine financing costs based on the country’s credit rating to set the required interest on debt, confirming that “improving the credit rating is also an important factor in reducing financing costs, whether from international markets or obtaining financing from financial institutions.”

He added that controlling inflation will lead to lowering interest rates and improving many indicators, including debt interest burden, emphasizing that debt service decline gives the state “more room” to direct revenues towards other spending items.

He stressed that the inflation decline is due to “better economic conditions and improvement in many economic indicators currently witnessed by Egypt,” foremost among them exchange rate stability, improved foreign reserves, increased exports, growth in tourism revenues, and remittances from Egyptians abroad.

He noted that part of the debt is in foreign currency, explaining that exchange rate improvement automatically reduces the value of this part when evaluated in Egyptian pounds, in addition to that external and internal debt repayment also improves the situation.

Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency raised Egypt’s rating by one notch to “B” while Fitch confirmed its rating at “B” in light of somewhat high growth potential in the country and strong support from partners.