Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy announced on Monday that Egypt will secure an additional $6bn from foreign institutions to guarantee the agreement for a $12bn loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a two-week period. In August, the IMF initially agreed to grant Egypt a $12bn three-year loan to support the government’s economic reform programme, which aims to bridge the budget deficit and restore stability to the exchange market. However, Egypt needs to obtain $6bn from foreign institutions before submitting the agreement to the IMF’s board for adoption. El-Garhy said that Egypt will issue international bonds during the second half of November or the first week of December. With the framework of an economic reform programme standing as the base of the agreement with the IMF, Egypt agreed to impose the value-added tax (VAT), which has been on the table for a long while.

Source: Daily News Egypt October 18, 2016 13:30 UTC