CAIRO: Mumtaz al-Saeed, Egypt's newly appointed finance minister, announced on Saturday that the country is not yet ready to negotiate with the Internnational Monetary Fund (IMF) for a proposed $3.2 billion loan, set to aid Egypt in tackling its growing budget deficit. “Regarding the fate of the deal with the IMF for the $3.2 billion fund, which is the deal that has been suspended because of the recent events, al-Saeed said it is too early to know the fate of this loan,” said a statement from the Finance Ministry. The move comes as a policy shift for Egypt's newly appointed cabinet, after the previous cabinet resigned in light of anti-government clashes that broke out across the country in November, leaving at least 41 dead and at least 3,000 injured, according to official state estimates. Egypt's former finance minster, Hazem el-Beblawi, who was appointed just last July, had announced on November 20 that he was set to move ahead and negotiate for the loan deal. The new cabinet, headed by Kamal al-Ganzouri, seems to be more hesitant about the idea of accepting foreign funding from the IMF. Over the summer when the loan deal was initially proposed, the deal was rejected due to opposition from the military council, who announced that they sought to tackle Egypt's budget deficit through regional and private funding. El-Saeed has acted as an advisor to el-Beblawi, and will be the nation's fourth finance minster this year. Egypt's interim ruling military council has authority to pick the rest of Egypt's newly appointed cabinet of ministers. They are set to announce the full list of new ministers on Wednesday. BM
