Egyptian Finance Minister Amr El Garhy said on Monday his country would gather an additional $6 billion in bilateral funding required to secure a $12 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan within one or two weeks. Egypt needs to secure $6 billion in bilateral support before the deal goes to the IMF board for approval. Garhy also said Egypt would issue international bonds in the second half of November or the first week of December. As part of a reform program that formed the basis of the IMF agreement, Egypt approved a long-awaited value-added-tax of 13 percent. The IMF also wants Egypt to focus monetary policy on easing the chronic dollar shortage and reduce inflation to single digits.

Source: Egypt Independent October 18, 2016 08:37 UTC