Egypt's cash-strapped government received Thursday a $3 billion deposit from Qatar that will eventually go toward its dwindling foreign-currency reserves, a top central-bank official said Sunday.
Egypt's cash-strapped government received Thursday a $3 billion deposit
from Qatar that will eventually go toward its dwindling foreign-currency
reserves, a top central-bank official said Sunday.
The aid, which was promised by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim
al-Thani last month, will remain on hold with the central bank until
Egypt
's
Ministry of Finance issues bonds of the same worth to
Qatar
.
The three-year bonds will carry a 3.5% interest rate, according to the central
bank official who asked not to be named.
Qatar
previously said it would provide
Egypt
with
$5 billion in loans and grants since
Egypt
's
Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, was elected last June. Last month, Sheikh
Hamad and his Egyptian counterpart, Hisham Qandil, held discussions to
strengthen bilateral ties between their countries.
The gas-rich Gulf state also promised to provide
Egypt
with
gas supplies during the strenuous summer months in which the Arab world's most
populous nation suffers constant power cuts and fuel shortages.
Egypt
is
currently in the throes of trying to secure a $4.8 billion loan from the
International Monetary Fund in order to bring back lost confidence in its
financial market. The country's foreign-currency reserves currently stand at
$14.42 billion. In April, the bank's foreign reserves grew for the first time
in five months after
Egypt
received a $2 billion loan from
Libya
.
Egypt
's
economic turmoil has heightened since the political uprising that toppled
former President Hosni Mubarak and his government two years ago. Since then,
Egypt
has
bled through nearly two-thirds of its $36 billion in foreign reserves.
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