Egypt is seeking up to $4bn from the International Monetary Fund to help plug the huge hole in its public finances that opened up as a result of the economic disarray following the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the former president ousted in February.
Samir Radwan, the minister of finance, told the Financial Times his country needed up to $12bn in budget support until the end of the next fiscal year in June 2012. The deficit, he said, will be “anywhere between 9 and 10 per cent of gross domestic product” in the next fiscal year.
He said the shortfall in public finances was the result of a sharp decline in tourism, exports and remittances from Egyptians abroad, coupled with rising demands for wage increases coming mainly from the state sector, which employs around 6m people.
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