Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil said on Wednesday he hoped Egypt could reach a loan deal with the International Monetary Fund before the end of year or sooner. "The objective (of the IMF visit) is to show support for the Egyptian economy and start the path of work until we reach negotiations and agreement on the loan by the end of this year, God willing, or before that, in two months, or according to what time allows," Qandil told a joint news conference with visiting IMF chief Christine Lagarde. Lagarde said Wednesday that there are no obstacles to negotiations between IMF and Cairo over the requested loan, adding that talks over the loan will continue, and that she expected it to take some time. She added that the loan would be paid to Egypt in installments with the process being revised after every portion. She down played concerns over the absence of the legislative body during the talks over the loan. Lagarde said the Washington-based institution wanted to support Egypt and said that an IMF team would discuss details on a loan package to help the economy. She said details and terms for the loan still had to be worked out and the IMF team would hold more talks on Thursday in Cairo before going back to Washington and then returning to Egypt for further discussions. Meanwhile, dozens of protesters gathered at the cabinet building downtown Cairo rejecting what they said “unfair conditions” placed on Egypt to receive IMF loan. The protest coincided with the talks held between Qandil and Lagarde, who earlier met with Egyptian president Mohamed Morsy. Protesters chanted “we are the free revolutionaries, no to impoverishing policies.” One protester, Haitham Mohamadeen, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that “the main reason for the protest it the unfair conditions placed on Egypt in a trial to control the peoples and the government decisions, and to make Egypt dependent on the west.”
