Egypt set for $650m fund

29 December 2011

Egypt is set to gain $650 million (£422 million) worth of funding from a range of global lending institutions, some of which will be used for infrastructure projects.

According to Engineering news, a minister for the north African nation agreed on Wednesday (December 28th) to take the money from the World Bank, European Investment Bank and other institutions.

Faiza Abu el-Naga, Egypt's planning and international cooperation minister, told reporters than $85 million of the package would be used for development schemes, and is a non-reimbursable grant.

Egypt's military had previously been reluctant to build up foreign debts because it only holds power in the country for a transitional period.

However, economists have suggested that the worsening economic conditions may now mean that the country might require as much as $15 billion in order to stave off a full-blown financial crisis.

Egypt recently announced that it had commissioned a Japanese consortium to assess ways of establishing better links between east and west by improving its railways and ports.