IMF ‘ready to support Egypt’ under new leadership

WASHINGTON, United States of America – (UPDATED) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday it is ready to help Egypt to restart growth and deal with other economic challenges after the country chose a new president.

“The election of a new president is an important step forward in Egypt’s transition,” a spokesman for the global crisis lender said in a statement.

“Egypt faces significant immediate economic challenges, especially the need to restart growth and address the fiscal and external imbalances. The IMF stands ready to support Egypt in dealing with these challenges and looks forward to working closely with the authorities.”

The statement came as Mohamed Morsi was poised to become Egypt’s first civilian president after being declared winner of the national election on Sunday.

Since late last year the IMF has been discussing with the country’s interim leadership a possible $3.2 billion loan with Cairo to help it bridge fiscal shortfalls while restructuring the economy and financial system.

But a permanent government needed to be in place to firm up the loan program, and the IMF stressed in April that it needed “a broad buy-in” from various constituencies in the country to the program, which will require significant structural reforms.

President-elect Morsi was on Tuesday drawing up a battle plan to confront Egypt’s economic and security crises, moving first to select a government of technocrats, according to an aide. -Agence France-Presse