IMF remains committed to supporting Egypt

CAIRO - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday reiterated support for Egypt to face its economic challenges, terming talks held on Monday between the IMF's delegation and Egyptian officials as fruitful.

"The IMF remains committed to support Egypt in dealing with its economic challenges and creating a model of economic growth via a socially-balanced program," read a statement released by the fund on Tuesday.

The talks between the delegation and Egypt's Prime Minister Hesham Qandil over a 4.8-billion-US dollars loan were fruitful, the statement said.

"An IMF technical team would visit Cairo in the coming weeks to resume discussions on possible IMF financial support," the statement added.

Speaking at a meeting with the IMF's delegation, Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi said "The Egyptian economy has improved during the last four months, and without the recent events, it could have achieved more progress".

Morsi noted that the decreasing credit ranking for Egypt has been repeated several times after Egypt's unrest, due to the instable political conditions. He reiterated "understanding and realization from IMF for the nature of the current situation in Egypt".

"The technical cooperation and agreement in different fields with no conditions will be reached in the coming weeks," Morsi said.

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer in Cairo on Sunday, Morsi said Egypt will witness an economic and political leap after approving the new constitution.

"The interests and the installments of the general debit are listed in the current fiscal year, ending on June 30, 2013, and we pay it in its due times," Morsi stressed.

Morsi affirmed that the economy growth have reached 2.6 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year compared to 0.3 percent in the same time last year.

The new investment projects in Egypt valued by 50 billion Egyptian pounds ($7.8 billion) with 11.1 percent increase, Morsi added.

"The procedures of the loan will be finished soon," Morsi added, reiterating that "there are ongoing negotiations and cooperation, but there are no conditions, as we don't accept imposing any conditions".

In a press statements Monday, Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation and Planning Ashraf al-Arabi termed the negotiations with the fund's delegation as "very fruitful".

"IMF is keen to support Egypt in this difficult stage," said Arabi.

"The approval of IMF's loan will help Egypt to be granted another one billion dollars from the World Bank, and half a billion dollars from the African Development Bank, and 450 million dollars from the United States," added Arabi.

On Nov 20 last year, the Egyptian government and the IMF reached a preliminary agreement, which was expected to be signed in December but was delayed due to the political turmoil after Morsi issued a constitutional declaration granting him sweeping powers.

Since then, Cairo has sought to revive talks with the fund as a kind of restoring the confidence in the Egyptian economy.