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The 12-month standby arrangement spans fiscal year 2011-2012, which starts in July, and carries a 1.5 % annual rate of interest ?a a level which Finance Minister Samir Radwan said fell far beneath the international borrowing charges Egypt would have had to agree to had it turned to the open market for help. The loan, which should nevertheless be authorized by the IMF’s executive board in July, is to be repaid more than five years, with all the payments because of begin 3 years and three months following its disbursement.

Officials stated the loan was aimed at supporting Egypt’s “home-grown” economic plan of supporting social justice right after decades underneath a regime broadly accused of enriching the wealthy in a nation exactly where more than 40 % from the population lived on or below the World Bank’s poverty delineation of $2 daily.

“We extremely significantly welcome the authorities’ plans to foster social justice” via rising spending on wellness, education, housing and transportation, Ratna Sahay, the IMF’s deputy director for the Middle East and Central Asia, told reporters, listing a few of the government’s latest priority programs.

“Support from the international community will tremendously facilitate the realization from the authorities’ economic objectives and, in this context, the IMF is committed to supporting Egypt and its individuals by means of this arrangement,” mentioned Sahay in an earlier e-mailed statement.