Off the wire
• Third attack reported on displaced persons camp near Iraqi capital  • French gov't uses appropriate security staff on Nice attack night: police watchdog  • UN chief voices concern over Turkey situation  • Portuguese maritime boat saves 39 migrants, refugees on journey to Greece  • Brazil's Rousseff and Lula to miss Olympic Games Opening Ceremony  • U.S. stocks end mixed after Fed statement  • Roundup: Finnish media sector restores profitability  • Doping officials assure Kenyan Rio 2016 athletes over testing  • Kenya's Olympic boss says country' s athletes will pass anti-doping test in Rio  • News Analysis: Hillary Clinton needs convention bump as popularity slides to 20-year low  
You are here: 　 Home

Egypt seeks 21 bln USD 3-year loan from IMF

Xinhua, July 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said Wednesday that Egypt will negotiate with a delegation coming from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) getting a 7 billion U.S. dollars loan per year for three years, state-run Al-Ahram news website reported.

"The IMF mission will arrive in Egypt next week and we had already started negotiations some time ago," Al-Ahram quoted the prime minister as saying, noting the time when the deal will be reached cannot currently be confirmed.

Egypt is currently facing an unprecedented hike of the U.S. dollar exchange rate against the local Egyptian pound, as one dollar exchange has recently exceeded 13 pounds in the black market for the first time of Egypt's modern history.

The Central Bank of Egypt has been suffering from declining foreign currency reserves over the past five years of political turmoil, falling from 36 billion dollars in early 2011 to 17.5 billion dollars as of end of May 2016.

The country's main sources of foreign currency, including tourism, the Suez Canal and the remittances of Egyptian expatriates, declined over the past few years for various reasons and the government is currently struggling to get the IMF loan to help in covering the shortage.

"Among the government's priorities are to adjust the dollar exchange rate and most importantly to maintain the basic goods and make them available for citizens at affordable prices," Ismail pointed out.

Chairman of Egypt Stock Exchange Mohamed Omran made similar statements earlier on Wednesday but said that the government is negotiating loans of 12 billion dollars from the IMF for three years.

"The government's negotiations with the IMF for a loan to support the economic reform plan may increase confidence in the Egyptian economy and contribute to the return of direct and indirect foreign investments to Egypt," Omran told official MENA news agency. Endit