Egyptian expats living in Greece are ready to give financial support to their cash-strapped country, as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s pending US$ 4.8 billion loan, the head of the expats league said on Thursday. Abdel Nasser Amer – the Chairman of the Egyptian Expats Living In Greece League – stated that each Expat is keen to donate their country US$ 500 instead of requesting other international lenders which would force the state to abide by strict conditions without prior discussion or putting into consideration the interests of the low-income class. An IMF would require Egypt to make politically sensitive reforms of costly fuel and food subsidies and raise some taxes. On the sidelines of a symposium “Egyptian Expats' Role In Solving Egypt's Current Crisis" held last Thursday under the sponsorship of the Egyptian Manpower and Immigration Ministry, Amer was quoted as saying: “Instead of humiliating ourselves making lengthy requests to obtain loans from other countries, we the nation must work on affording our country with the loans." Earlier that month, the Egyptian Planning Minister Ashraf Al-Araby acknowledged there would be social costs to implementing reforms required by the IMF but if Egypt did not reach a deal with the global lender it would be forced to resort to even stricter austerity measures.
