IMF loan could be back on the table for Egypt | The National

IMF loan could be back on the table for Egypt | The National:



"Egypt’s on-off talks with the IMF may be back on again, as investors say IMF loans offer a stronger platform for reviving the economy than the Arabian Gulf money keeping it afloat.



Even with signs of a recovery in tourism and investment, the gap between Egypt’s foreign currency receipts and needs may reach US$15 billion a year by 2017, said Jason Tuvey, a London-based analyst at Capital Economics. Support from GCC countries is “keeping strains in its balance of payments contained”, but it’s “not a long-term solution”, he said.



In the political upheaval that followed the revolt of 2011 and the army takeover two years later, as investors fled and currency reserves plunged, Egypt turned to the GCC. First Qatar and later Saudi Arabia and the UAE obliged, with more than $40bn in grants, loans and investment to prop up sympathetic governments. Meanwhile, repeated talks with the IMF broke off short of a loan accord."



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