Sisi meets IMF’s Lagarde on sidelines of G20 in Hangzhou

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has just started a meeting with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of G20 Summit in China’s Hangzhou.

The two officials are expected to discuss IMF’s three-year $12 billion loan programme for Egypt.

IMF announced earlier in August that it has reached a tentative agreement with Egypt on a loan of $12 billion over three years. The IMF lifeline signals an opportunity for the Egyptian government to turn around the struggling economy, which has been propped up in recent years by over $25 billion in cash injections from Gulf states.

Egypt is a guest of honour in G20 Summit in China, which takes place during 4 and 5 September this year. The Egyptian president will participate as a guest in the 2016 G20 Summit at the invitation of Chinese president and summit chairman Xi Jinping, a first for Egypt since the first summit was held in 2008.