The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Egyptian government have announced they are to resume talks next month on a loan deal that could help ease Egypt's budget deficiencies. It comes as pensions in the country are not being paid as a result of no money in the coffers. The country's investment minister Osama Saleh said on Monday that talks over the loan agreement would resume again in a few weeks. “There have been pledges of international and regional support to Egypt and most of these are in progress,” Saleh said in a speech at a financial conference. “Negotiations with the IMF over the $4.8 billion loan will resume in early March,” he said. Saleh said an agreement with the IMF had almost been in place in December but that a change in public opinion meant it collapsed. That was largely due to the proposed tax hikes that most Egyptians would be unable to pay for, leaving dissent high and causing the government to backtrack. “We don't see any reasons why the Egyptian people should reject the program. They will eventually realize that the benefits they will get will outweigh the load they will carry,” he said. The IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Director Masood Ahmed was quoted by local press as saying the international financial body is currently in a review of the government's new procedures for reducing its deficit. That is a prerequisite for resuming talks to ultimately finalize and sign the loan deal. “Egypt's government is determined to move forward and is fully cooperating to seal the loan deal, there are just a few minor complications that it needs to overcome before it can receive the loan," explained Ahmed. Ahmed added that the IMF must be fully convinced that Egypt will be able to fully implement the loan program before it can give a final agreement on the loan, Egyptian state-run news agency MENA reported. In December, Egypt asked the IMF to postpone the loan deal worth $4.8 billion as it did not want to implement tax increases that enraged many Egyptians across the country. The tax increases were part of IMF stipulations for the loan agreement, which was approved recently by the international development organization. “In light of the unfolding developments on the ground, the Egyptian authorities have asked to postpone their request for a Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF," said a statement from the IMF sent to media on Tuesday afternoon Cairo time. “The Fund remains in close contact with the authorities, and stands ready to continue supporting Egypt during the ongoing transition and to consult with the authorities on the resumption of discussions regarding the Stand-By Arrangement," it added. But the loan deal has not been seen as necessarily positive by opposition groups in the country, who had demanded that there was a national dialogue ahead o approving the deal. “This is a loan that in the end we all know who is going to pay for it, Egyptians and nobody wanted to hear our criticism and frustration," activist Amr Mohamed, 28, who has spoken out on the loan on social media networks, told Bikyanews.com after the loan was announced in November. An IMF staff mission headed by Andreas Bauer, Division Chief in the Middle East and Central Asia Department, and the Egyptian authorities said that they had reached a staff-level agreement on a 22-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) in the amount of about $4.8 billion. But activists and NGOs in Egypt have repeatedly said that the entire process has been void of transparency and had recently come together to oppose the loan, demanding that the government of President Mohamed Morsi end discussions with the IMF. It didn't happen. In early November, a group of 17 political parties, NGOs and human rights associations in Egypt have called for loan negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be ended immediately, citing a lack of transparency and the undemocratic nature of the current development. Among the groups were the Popular Current Party, The Egyptian Current Party, The Strong Egypt Party as well as rights NGOs New Woman Foundation, Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Habi Center for Environmental Rights, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Egyptian Women Legal Aid and others. “The negotiations of the terms and conditions of the loan agreement, including the government's economic reform program, have lacked transparency on the part of both the IMF and the Government of Egypt," said the statement sent to media outlets. BN
