International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Saturday there are no preconditions for the IMF team which would come to Cairo in the last week of October to resume talks on a loan sought by the Egyptian government. Lagarde was speaking at a news conference after meeting with senior officials from the six oil exporters in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Lagarde added that the IMF is willing to have a ‘partnership' with Egypt. Obviously, we need to have a strong political climate to enable us to start talks; President Morsi and his government are providing us the necessary framework so as to have such talks, lagarde stated. The government will seek public support for its economic reform plans in a "social dialogue" beginning on Thursday before presenting them to the president next week, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said on Wednesday. Egypt urgently needs financial support to prop up state coffers weakened by economic turmoil since the popular uprising last year that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. It has been negotiating a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund but has indicated it may seek to increase that amount. The IMF wants Egypt to put a program in place to narrow a budget deficit that has mushroomed to 11 percent of gross domestic product since the uprising. One part of that program is likely to be a restructuring of subsidies on petroleum products, which eat up about 25 percent of total government spending. Reuters - Arabic
