Egypt said on Monday that its talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a new extended fund facility are in the "final stages", Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said in a Cabinet statement. The statement did not provide more details about the talks. In July, On Tuesday, in an evaluation of a $5.2 billion stand-by arrangement agreed with Egypt in 2020, the IMF said that the North African country needed to make "decisive progress" on fiscal and structural reform. The Washington-headquartered Fund also said that greater exchange rate variability could have helped avoid a buildup of external imbalances and facilitate adjustment to economic shocks.