Egypt rejects IMF rescue loan
Baku, March 18 (AZERTAC). Cairo declines IMF`s $750 million emergency credit offer, while talks over $4.8 billion loan remain stalled.
Egypt has rejected an offer of a $750 million rescue loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), ruling out a fallback on emergency measures.
The emergency credit offer came after delays in finalising a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF to bolster Egypt`s battered economy and help counter a growing budget deficit.
Egyptian Finance Minister El-Morsi Hegazy said on Tuesday that his country had started implementing a full economic reform programme, entitling it to a larger loan from the IMF, instead of emergency measures. Hegazy insisted that Egypt`s economy was on the path to recovery.
An IMF official would not comment on the minister`s rejection of the rescue loan offer.
"We are in discussion with the authorities on how best to support Egypt, including on the timing of the next staff visit," IMF spokeswoman Wafa Amr said in an email.
The stopgap loan, part of the body`s Rapid Financing Instrument, would not have been a substitute for Egypt`s multibillion dollar loan request.
The government has invited the IMF back to the country this month to resume talks, but no date has been set.
An IMF official said late last month in Washington that the body received Egypt`s revised economic programme, which it was studying.
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