IMF officials to hold meeting Friday to decide on cash-strapped Egypt's $12-billion loan request
News Desk
Egypt will likely receive the first tranche of a $12-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund -- $2.75 billion -- next week, Finance Minister Amr al-Garhi said Thursday.
On Tuesday, IMF Director Christine Lagarde said she would recommend to the fund’s executive board that it approve Egypt’s loan request.
IMF officials will hold a meeting on Friday to decide whether or not to approve the loan, which, if granted, would be dispersed over three years.
In a related development, al-Garhi said Wednesday that Egypt was thinking about postponing plans to issue $2.5 billion worth of government bonds.
In an interview with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel, Al-Garhi said Egypt’s central bank planned to sell $4 billion worth of government bonds -- issued by the Finance Ministry on Wednesday -- on Ireland’s stock exchange.
The move, he said, was aimed at raising some $2 billion in financing over the next year.
The minister stressed, however, that the issuance of new government bonds was not a condition for the sought-for IMF loan.
