Islamic Development Bank considers $10bn funding for Egypt

The Islamic Development Bank is considering a recent request by Egypt for $10 billion in funding for infrastructure development projects, to be provided over the next five years, said the Egyptian finance ministry in a statement on Wednesday. On Monday, Egypt received a $300 million loan from the Saudi Arabia-based bank to the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Egypt’s state authority for petroleum, according to the statement. The loan is part of a total $1 billion loan agreement signed by Egypt with the IDB in July of last year aimed at funding food and energy imports. Egypt is suffering yet another bout of fuel shortages, which the government has attributed to technical issues, but which some commentators blame on the lack of dollar liquidity and its impact on fuel imports. The Egyptian pound, which has been steadily slipping against the dollar since the Central Bank of Egypt began auctioning foreign currency in late December, fell below LE7 to the US dollar on the official exchange market on 19 June. In the Tuesday meeting with Egypt’s Finance Minister Fayyad Abdel-Moneim, Ahmed Mohamed Ali, head of the Islamic Development Bank Group reiterated the bank’s commitment to helping Egypt surmount its formidable economic challenges, having already granted it $6 billion in funds. Ali pledged to send an IDB team to Cairo to begin discussions on the requested $10 billion loan in September