When Egypt was forced to go cap-in-hand to the IMF as it struggled with a foreign currency crisis and dwindling reserves in 2016, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was adamant that he would take the “hard decisions” that his predecessors avoided in order to turn round the ailing economy.
Knowing he would have to push through politically sensitive reforms that would heap pain on millions of impoverished Egyptians to secure a $12bn loan from the fund, he insisted the Arab state had to bridge the gap between resources and spending.
“We borrow and we borrow, and the more we borrow the more the debt grows,” Sisi said. “All the hard decisions that many over the years were scared to take: I will not hesitate for a second to take them.”
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