In an IMF statement, top official Masood Ahmed said Egypt and the fund made very good progress in talks over the along-awaited US$4.8 billion loan. This was after Masood Ahmed, IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, hold discussion Sunday afternoon with the Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil. "We've had very good progress," told Ahmed reporters, describing the discussions as "very constructive". Ahmed further noted that he welcomes Egyptian determination to move forward with their economic reform program, stressing that the International Monetary Fund's technical team will be working with the Egyptian government within the upcoming weeks seeking to face to boost the country's turbulent Egyptian economy and increase the country's growth rates. It is worth noting that the IMF technical team has arrived in Egypt Sunday morning so as to reopen negotiations with the Egyptian government on the $4.8 billion loan widely seen as crucial to salvaging its damaged economy after almost two years of political turbulence. The fund's technical team - which is headed by Masood Ahmed, and Andreas Bauer – will stay in Egypt for two days looking forward to reaching a final agreement with the Egyptian government over the along-awaited loan. Egypt has been holding negotiations with the IMF for multiple months seeking to obtain a loan resulting in reaching an initial agreement last November. The IMF has then postponed the talks requesting the government to amend its economic reform program. The talks were resumed with the country in January over the amended reform program agreeing to make their next meeting be scheduled for Sunday, March 17th.
