The International Monetary Fund is stepping up lending in a region where economic reformers haven’t exactly had the most success, Bloomberg reported. Hoping to restore the confidence of foreign investors, Egypt announced an initial agreement Thursday to borrow $12 billion over three years from the IMF, joining Iraq, Tunisia and Jordan in taking money from the Washington-based fund. Egypt’s program is likely to see the government of President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi move toward a more flexible exchange rate, rebuild foreign-currency reserves and cut spending. The influx of capital offers an opportunity to restore economic stability in a region beset by political turmoil, terrorism and the collapse in the price of oil, its most important export. While all the IMF borrowers except Iraq are fuel importers, they’ve received flows of aid and remittances from wealthy producers such as Saudi Arabia, which are now drying up.
