Egypt

Egypt may qualify for an International Monetary Fund bridge loan of more than $700 million a year that could help Cairo stave off collapse of its crisis-stricken economy, an IMF official said on Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. "Egypt needs bold and ambitious policy actions to address its economic and financial challenges without further delay," IMF spokeswoman Wafa Amr said.

Egypt is at risk of a "revolution of the hungry" two years after Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising, as food and energy prices will soar with or without an IMF deal, Reuters reported in an analysis. Failure to get the $4.8 billion (£3.17 billion) loan or some other funding would have dire consequences: if Egypt keeps burning foreign currency at the rate it has done since the 2011 uprising, it will have none left in little more than a year. But success would also stir Egypt's boiling social and political cauldron.

Egypt seems to realise the money has nearly run out and it must turn to the IMF or a willing friend in the Gulf, where it now has just one, Qatar, Reuters reported. After months of delays, the Islamist government has produced a new plan to reverse a slide in its foreign currency reserves and tackle a budget deficit that could overwhelm a stable wealthy nation, let alone a country riven by political conflict. This plan relies on someone else stumping up to keep the Arab world's most populous nation afloat.

The key to preventing a messy devaluation of Egypt's pound may lie with the country's households, whose dollar holdings are being eyed by foreign investors as a critical gauge of trust in the authorities, Reuters reported in an analysis. Countless emerging market crises have shown over the decades that it is not the withdrawal of foreign investors from a market but the flight of local households and businesses from a currency that is instrumental in its collapse. Egypt, despite months of upheaval, is not there yet.

Egypt's currency plumbed new depths yesterday as policy makers tried to reassure the public and investors that they can prevent a full-scale currency devaluation while still repairing Egypt's budget deficit, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The country's worsening economic crisis comes after President Mohammed Morsi isolated his political opponents to push through Egypt's Islamist-leaning constitution, sparking weeks of riots, protests and political uncertainty.

Egypt's new government hopes to secure a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund before the end of the year, government officials said, in a fresh effort to heal the country's ailing economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. At a news conference on Wednesday following meetings with President Mohammed Morsi and his senior economic team, Christine Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, said the global lender would return to stalled negotiations.

The International Monetary Fund agreed Sunday to lend Egypt $3 billion with few stated conditions to help the country mend its ailing economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Egypt's finance minister, Samir Radwan, and the deputy director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, Ratna Sahay, at a news conference announced a 1.5% interest rate on the one-year loan, which is to be paid in full within five years.