CAIRO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Egypt for more strict procedures, in order to secure a $3.2 billion loan to support its budget, which has a gap of 12$ billion, according to an official IMF statement. Masood Ahmed, IMF director for the Middle East and North Africa, told Reuters that Egypt still needed to do “some technical work” to finalize its economic program. Masood has claimed there are three important steps that Egypt should take if it wants to go further in the loan procedure with the IMF, referring to the economic program, political support and alternative financial sources. “I think that process (of getting political support) is advancing but I do not think we are at the point yet where we could move forward.” “There's still more work to be done to close down those three areas,” he said, referring the three important steps to secure the loan. Egypt and the IMF are in discussions on a $3.2 billion loan program, which Egypt had requested earlier this year but which had been opposed by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. Egypt's foreign reserves have tumbled by more than $20 billion to $15 billion during a year of political turmoil following the 2011 popular uprising, which toppled Hosni Mubarak, after 30 years in power. Egypt has said it expects Saudi Arabia to deposit $1 billion at the Egyptian Central Bank by the end of April as part of a $2.7 billion package, but a recent crisis between the two countries may hinder this.
