U.S. working with G7 countries to finance IMF Egypt programme: official

The United States views the International Monetary Fund’s proposed $12 billion bailout for Egypt as “essential” and is working with G7 economic powers to ensure that it is fully funded with bilateral financing, a senior U.S. Treasury official revealed Tuesday.

Nathan Sheets, Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, told a policy forum that the United States supports the IMF’s Egypt programme and believes that reforms required by the IMF will be challenging, but are necessary to liberalise Egypt’s economy and make it more competitive.

Egypt needs to arrange up to $6 billion in bilateral gap financing before the IMF board can approve the programme. Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said earlier on Tuesday that about 60 percent of the total had been secured.

Source: Reuters