Egypt's Minister of Planning Ashraf Al-Arabi has said that the US and Egypt have signed an aid deal worth $190 million. "This $190 million is the first payment of two totaling $450 million."
The minister said that the first installment is to support the general budget and most of it will go to subsidize investment projects.
An agreement was reached on the deal during Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to Cairo last week. According to Minister Al-Arabi, it is in line with US support for Egypt's socio-economic program which was proposed to the IMF after being prepared by the government and NGOs. The second payment is due before the end of 2013.
Meantime, al-Arabi expected the return of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) technical mission to Egypt shortly to resume negotiations on the IMF $ 4.8 billion loan to be extended to Egypt in light of the government's implementation of the socio-economic reform program counting on social justice.
via Egypt State Information Service (Cairo)