Egypt will not take the emergency IMF loan, according to the government

According to Egypt’s Cabinet of Ministers and the state’s Minister of Finance El-Morsy El-Sayeed Hegazy Egypt will not sign the agreement with International Monetary Fund (IMF) about the so called emergency loan.

We would remind here that IMF declared recently that it could grant Egypt some emergency funds through the special Rapid Financial Instrument (RFI) facility to help Egypt to resolve its current crisis of payments and restore the balance. Under this program Egypt could receive almost $ 700 million of emergency financial aid. This aid should be granted parallel with the ongoing negotiations over the $ 4.8 billion aid for restoring Egyptian struggling economy.

Egypt’s Cabinet’s representatives stated earlier that the government and economic specialists are studying the issue.

Meanwhile the spokesperson of the Cabinet, Alaa El Hadidi, announced on Tuesday, 12 March, that Egypt refused the proposed emergency loan as it is not within the frameworks of the current economic program. Granting this RFI aid is connected to the special measures implemented in the state’s economy such as austerity measures, which is unacceptable in the current situation and could cause the massive protests and spark anger among the people.

In addition to that there is no specific date and timetable for arrival of the IMF delegation in Cairo for continuing of the negotiations over the previously requested main $ 4.8 billion loan. The talks and signing the agreement have been postponed due to the political instability in the country.

According to Egypt’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ashraf Al-Araby the official IMF delegation is expected to visit Egypt within the coming days.