CAIRO: A senior Egyptian finance ministry official involved in talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8bn loan is continuing in his post, the government said yesterday, reversing an earlier announcement that he had resigned.
Hany Kadry Dimian, who has been the point man in Egypt’s protracted and so far fruitless negotiations to obtain a $4.8bn loan from the IMF, had told Reuters on Sunday that he had quit his post but gave no explanation for his decision.
Cabinet spokesman Alaa El Hadidi said Dimian was continuing his duties “particularly because the IMF negotiations are nearing completion”. Prime Minister Hisham Kandil met with Dimian on Thursday afternoon to discuss preparations for further talks with the global lender, a government statement said.
Dimian said that he hoped to conclude the remaining stages of the negotiations with the global lender as soon as possible, saying that the Egyptian side had the capabilities to manage the negotiations process and to implement the IMF programme.
A senior technocrat appointed in 2007, Kadry survived five finance ministers in office since the 2011 uprising that overthrew former autocratic President Hosni Mubarak. The report of his departure had been seen as a bad omen for Egypt’s hopes of reaching a deal on the IMF loan next month, as the government has said it aims to do.
After the announcement of Kadry’s resignation, the finance minister appointed his economic adviser Abdallah Shehata to manage negotiations with the IMF, state news agency Mena said on Tuesday. Reuters
