Egypt became a member of the International Monetary Fund in December 1945. The country's current stake in the Fund is $1.5 billion. Egypt received its first loan from the Fund in the financial year starting in 1977 under the presidency of Anwar El-Sadat. The loan was for $185.7 million and was taken to help ease the burden of overdue external payments and mounting inflation. Egypt's second IMF loan came in the years 1991-1993 under the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, worth some $375.2 million. It was taken out to plug Egypt's trade deficit. The third IMF loan granted to Egypt was of $434.4 million in 1996, but the loan was never taken out and was considered null and void, paving the way for a write-off of 50 percent of Egypt's debts to member nations of the Paris Club. Since then Egypt did not take any loans from the Fund, although the IMF provided consultations and technical assistance to the Egyptian government, until then prime minister Kamal El-Ganzouri's government declared its intention to request foreign loans following Egypt's 25 January 2011 revolution. After the election of Mohamed Morsi in 2012 the cabinet of Prime Minister Hisham Qandil requested a loan of $4.7 billion from the IMF, but the loan agreement was never signed and the idea has until now been shelved. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/152331.aspx