Egypt’s new Prime Minister Hisham Qandil will hold a meeting with members of his government tomorrow to discuss the next steps on seeking an International Monetary Fund loan, Qandil said.
An IMF deal would help Egypt stave off a budget and balance of payments crisis and add credibility to economic reforms needed to restore the confidence of investors who fled the country after a popular uprising last year.
“We will have a meeting on Saturday headed by me to look into our next steps,” Qandil said in Cairo.
Egypt’s economy is also sliding fast, with more than half of foreign currency reserves wiped out in the last 18 months.
Egypt’s new prime minister and his Cabinet were sworn in yesterday, the first government since the election of a Muslim Brotherhood leader as the country’s first freely elected president.
Qandil asked Egyptians to rally behind his new government.
The Cabinet includes several members of the outgoing government and mainly technocratic figures. Brotherhood members took four ministries, including the key information minister post, which oversees state media.
It also retains in his post Hosni Mubarak’s defense minister of 20 years, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi.
The new government is the first since the June 30 inauguration of President Muhammed Mursi.
The finance and foreign ministers from the outgoing government were retained.
The Cabinet lineup includes only two women.
The higher education portfolio gives the Brotherhood control over the country’s universities.
