Egypt’s Interim Govt Unlikely to Resume IMF Talks – Minister Says

Although financial budget crunch still bites, Egypt’s interim administration is unlikely to resume talks over the long-awaited IMF loan, the country’s planning minister was quoted as saying to Amwal Al Ghad.

Egyptian Planning Minister Ashraf El-Arabi has ruled out that the current cabinet would resume the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the US$ 4.8 billion to support the cash-strapped country.

Despite the ongoing economic turbulence, the Egyptian interim cabinet is currently adopting expansion policies, different from the pre-June 30 cabinet’s approaches.

The loan, needed to help stabilize Egypt’s balance of payments and state finances, has been under discussion for two years but agreement has repeatedly been postponed by political unrest in the country and the government’s reluctance to commit to austerity measures.

Earlier by June-end, Egypt’s Finance Minister Ahmed Galal said the interim government would seek to avoid major austerity measures and instead work to stimulate the economy by improving security and pumping in new funds.

“We will seek to pump more new funds into the economy and not follow austerity measures. We do not want to increase taxes sharply, that is if we increase them at all, and we do not want to lower spending in a way that will slow a revival of the economy.”