CAIRO: Egypt is looking to the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and other Arab states to help with its $7 billion deficit. Arab finance ministers met on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi to discuss regional financial interests and possibilities for sustainable growth. Egypt is expected to receive about $500 million from the AMF and another several billion in loans from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “There are talks about a package coming from Arab countries, from Saudi Arabia, from the Emirates. We are under discussion, but both of them have presented proposals of a couple of billion dollars each,” Egyptian Finance Minister Hazem el-Beblawi told Reuters. El-Beblawi stated that he expects that the deal will be finalized before the end of the year. Egypt is facing a projected deficit of about nine percent of its GDP for this fiscal year. Foreign investment and tourism in Egypt has dwindled through a prolonged period of political uncertainty after the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year. In June, Egypt turned down an offer of $3 billion in aid from the IMF, vowing to tackle the country's financial problems with foreign and regional aid. BM