Egypt expects to receive $1.5 billion loans from WB, AFDB before year end

The World Bank expects to make a $1 billion development policy loan available to Egypt in December if all goes to plan after completing negotiations in Cairo last weekend, a senior World Bank official said.

The loan could be the first of three as part of a three-year program with Egypt, Hafez Ghanem, the World Bank's vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, said.

Egypt has said it needs the money to help ease a foreign currency shortage caused by a slide in tourism revenues and foreign investment.

"Our team was in Cairo over the weekend and I think they completed the negotiations," he said, adding that the World Bank and Egyptian government still needed to approve the final documents for the $1 billion installment.

"It would come through sometime in December if everything is fine," he said.

"There is an agreement in principle that this is a $3 billion, 3-year program, but that commitment is only for the first year," he added.

The government of the most populous Arab country also expected to receive $500 million from the Côte d'Ivoire-based African Development Bank (AFDB) before end of this year to finance the urgent developing projects, Al-Ahram reported on Friday citing the international cooperation minister Sahar Nasr.