IMF ‘very close’ to fresh Egypt loan deal, Kristalina Georgieva says

IMF ‘very close’ to fresh Egypt loan deal, Kristalina Georgieva says

The IMF managing director said the lender was “very close” to concluding a loan deal with Egypt widely seen as crucial for easing a foreign currency crisis that has been suffocating the economy of the heavily indebted Arab country.

“We may need a little bit more time,” Kristalina Georgieva said at a press briefing at the fund’s headquarters in Washington. “But we are in this very last stretch where we are working on the details of implementation and both sides, Egyptians and us, want to get that right.”

Georgieva made clear that the war in Gaza was the main reason why the IMF was pushing ahead with an expanded loan deal despite having stopped disbursements on an earlier $3bn loan. It halted payments last year because Cairo did not meet conditions to move to a flexible exchange rate and reduce the footprint of the state and the military in the economy.

She said “we worry a lot” about countries that “border the epicentre” of the war in Gaza, naming Egypt and Lebanon and to a lesser extent Jordan.

The drop in shipping revenues as a result of attacks by Houthis rebels in Yemen on Red Sea shipping “added anxiety” for Cairo. “We recognise that