S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Masood Ahmed, will return to Egypt next weekend to resume talks for a US$ 4.8 billion loan to the country, according to IMF joint spokesperson Willian Murray, who spoke at an online press conference this Thursday (14th) in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is to discuss their economic program and the next steps of the IMF’s engagement with Egypt,\u201d said Murray. The Fund reached an agreement with the Egyptians in November last year, but the country requested that it was suspended the following month, amidst anti-government protests, for fear that austerity measures such as increased taxes would create further instability. <\/p>\n
Egypt is undergoing a turbulent political transition process since former president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in January 2011, midst the Arab Spring. The need to get national accounts in order clashes with popular demand for more jobs and social inclusion. Foreign exchange reserves are on the way down and the Egyptian pound is losing value, so the country needs external financing.<\/p>\n
Murray made no forecasts as to the outcome of the IMF meetings in Cairo, but reiterated that \u201cThe IMF remains fully committed to supporting Egypt at this critical time,\u201d with a domestic program that addresses economic and financial challenges and paves the way for a lasting, socially-inclusive economic recovery. <\/p>\n
Tunisia <\/b> <\/p>\n
The joint spokesperson also addressed the IMF\u2019s negotiations with Tunisia after the change of government in the country. Hamadi Jebali was replaced by Ali Larayedh as the country\u2019s prime minister. Like Egypt, Tunisia is experiencing a complicated transition process since former president Zine El Abdine Ben Ali stepped down in 2011.<\/p>\n
The Tunisians are shopping for a US$ 1.78 billion Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement. This type of deal is used when the country has no intention of using the loan, but may if it needs to. In early February, the IMF reported that negotiations were at an advanced stage, but that was before the murder of opposition leader Chokri Belaid, which caused political instability to take a turn for the worse, and eventually led to a new government being formed. Both Jebali and Larayedh belong to the same party, Ennahda.<\/p>\n
According to Murray, negotiations continue \u201cat the technical level.\u201d \u201cA new government has been appointed and our personnel are inquiring into its intentions and its term in office,\u201d he said. \u201cThe IMF remains prepared to help Tunisia through this difficult process of political transition in whatever is necessary,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Fund\u2019s director Masood Ahmed will go to Cairo next weekend to discuss the economic program devised by the local authorities. Egyptians are fearful that austerity measures may increase instability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1454,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-economy"},"wps_subtitle":"The Fund\u2019s director Masood Ahmed will go to Cairo next weekend to discuss the economic program devised by the local authorities. Egyptians are fearful that austerity measures may increase instability.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}