Cairo – Mubasher: Talks between Egypt and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for new financing are still ongoing and achieving progress as per the set timeline, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF, Jihad Azour, told Al-Arabiya.
After reaching an agreement with Lebanon in April, there are a set of procedures that should be taken by the government at the soonest in order to present the programme to the fund’s management. Furthermore, negotiations with Tunisia started months ago and are ongoing and progressing, Azour said.
He added that the rise in interest prices is linked to the inflation jumps, and that’s why monetary policies of central banks resort to hiking interest rates to tame inflation.
Speaking of inflation levels in GCC states, Azour stressed they are less than those registered in other countries given the consumption basket structure, noting that monetary policies should adapt to the global increase in inflation in order to maintain acceptable price levels.
