The FJP economic committee’s spokesperson Mohamed Gouda said Saturday the committee will hold a meeting Sunday to determine its position on the IMF loan estimated at US$4.8 billion.
The party is closer to rejecting the loan, he said, noting that some details were still to be discussed in the meeting.
The decision of the party has to do with how the cabinet plans to take advantage of the loan, Gouda told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The party specified several conditions for approval, including that the cabinet should make sure it has used all internal alternatives and self-financing sources before accepting the loan.
The party stipulated that the cabinet should use the loan in implementing a comprehensive reform plan for the Egyptian economy, which would be within the framework of the president's Renaissance Project.
The party further said that the cabinet has to be committed to not affecting the poor or low-income class in any way, with the need to draw the loan into real investment projects and not to direct it to financing the budget deficit. These investment projects should have the ability to generate revenues sufficient to repay the loan, so that it does not form a burden on the state treasury, and the cabinet should also be fully transparent with regard to disclosing the details related to the loan and how it plans to utilize it, it added.
Gouda pointed out that he sees the loan as important, since the cost of the loan is cheap and will restore confidence in the Egyptian economy and attract investments and investors to Egypt, as many states linked investments in Egypt to the approval of the loan.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
