IMF will attend Egypt’s investors conference

IMF will attend Egypt’s investors conference

CAIRO

The head of the International Monetary Fund said in remarks published Sunday that the world body will attend an investment conference in Egypt in February during which authorities hope to raise billions of dollars to revive the country’s battered economy.

Ahead of the conference, IMF hopes to prepare a long-delayed assessment of Egypt’s economy, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told the Saudi-owned Arabic daily Ashraq Al-Awsat.

Lagarde said Cairo’s recent efforts at reforms, including the reduction of energy subsidies, were “a good start” toward improving Egypt’s crippling budget deficit.

Egypt has not asked for an IMF loan — which it hasn’t secured during negotiations in the past three years of turmoil — but wants the IMF to resume its periodic economic assessments of the country’s economy, Lagarde said.

Egypt’s government is looking to raise as much as $100 billion at the February conference to help finance several mega-projects the authorities are pursuing, including the development of the Suez Canal area.

Associated Press