Egypt expects to receive the first $2.5 billion tranche of a $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan before the end of this year, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmed Kojak announced Monday. A delegation from the Ministry of Finance and the central bank will visit the United States next October to conduct a new round of loan talks involving terms and conditions with the IMF officials, Kojak told reports on the sidelines of Euromoney Egypt conference in Cairo. Egypt has reached a staff level agreement for a $12 billion loan programme from the IMF and must secure around $6 billion in bilateral financing to obtain approval for the programme. The IMF lifeline signals an opportunity for the Egyptian government to turn around the struggling economy, which has been propped up in recent years by over $25 billion in cash injections from Gulf states.
