Saturday, September 15, 2012

Turkey to provide Egypt with $2 billion in finance

Turkey to provide Egypt with $2 billion in finance

Turkey to provide Egypt with $2 billion in finance

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Reuters
9:38 a.m. CDT, September 15, 2012

CAIRO (Reuters) - Turkey has agreed during a visit by Egyptian officials to Istanbul to provide Egypt with a $2 billion financing package, Egypt's finance minister said on Saturday.

Egypt's new government has been seeking foreign help to plug twin deficits in its budget and balance of payments that have mushroomed since last year's popular uprising. Last month it formally asked the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan.

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Mumtaz al-Saeed said he could not yet say whether the Turkish financing would include any direct budget support.

"We agreed on $2 billion in financing, but the details on how it will be structured have not yet been worked out yet," he told Reuters by telephone.

Turkey's embassy in Cairo said the $2 billion package aimed to strengthen Egypt's foreign currency reserves and support investment in infrastructure. Half would be in the form of bilateral loans.

Mumtaz and presidential assistant Essam al-Hadad discussed the package with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan in a meeting in Istanbul, the embassy said in an emailed statement.

Qatar has promised Egypt $2 billion in loans to support the budget and on September 6 it pledged to invest $18 billion in Egyptian tourism and industrial projects over the next five years.

U.S. officials have said the Obama administration was close to a deal with Egypt's new government for $1 billion in debt relief, and last week senior executives of around 50 U.S. corporations visited Egypt to discuss new investments.

Egypt's is also in talks for additional budget support worth about $1 billion from the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

(This story corrected date of U.S. businessmen's visit in eighth paragraph)

(Reporting by Patrick Werr, editing by William Hardy)

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Turkey to provide Egypt with $2 billion in finance

Because of this financing it is possible that Egypt now might be less dependent upon U.S. foreign Aid. This whole set of changes in the Middle east is beginning to take almost everyone's breath away at this point. Russia didn't want to lose Syria which it likely will  but the U.S. might now be losing Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey. So, the middle east is definitely changing and evolving into something we have never seen before. I'm also sure a lot of Egyptians in Egypt and the U.S. must wonder about Obama's statement that went something like "Egypt isn't an ally but it's not an enemy." I'm sure a lot of people might look at that and blink a couple of times.

I think people all over the world who are neutral or on different sides? are saying to themselves WTF? right about now regarding all aspects of the middle east including their business dealings there.



 


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