CAIRO - Egypt's military rulers asked the International Monetary Fund on Monday for a $3.2 billion loan that they had previously rejected, bowing to the realities of a worsening economy nearly a year after the exit of the strongman Hosni Mubarak.
Egyptian officials said they might ask for even more. "It may increase," Fayza Abul Naga, minister of planning and international cooperation, said at a news conference with a visiting delegation from the fund.
The loan request to the IMF was essentially the same as the package that Egyptian officials had negotiated last spring, people familiar with the terms said. At the time, the military-led government had abruptly decided that debts to the IMF could impose conditions the military rulers considered an infringement on Egyptian sovereignty.
Since then, however, Egypt's economy has continued to suffer from the collapse of tourism and foreign investment amid the unrest and uncertainty of the military-led transition after the ouster of Mubarak in February.
Egypt's reserves of foreign currency have fallen from a peak of about $36 billion before the revolution to about $10 billion, after certain obligations, enough to cover just two months of imports. Egypt's currency has come under mounting pressure -- economists say further devaluation may be almost inevitable -- and a steep drop in the exchange rate could bring painful inflation and more social unrest.
Doubts about the solvency of the Egyptian government have made it increasingly difficult for the government to borrow from private sources to cover growing debts.
The meetings about the loan come amid a sudden fuel shortage here that is confounding consumers and economists alike. There have been long lines at gasoline pumps around the country, and many filling stations have run dry early in the day.
Officials in the fund's delegation, led by its Middle East director, Masood Ahmed, said Monday that after hearing the government's plans, they would return to Washington to review the proposed loan and make a decision by the end of the month. The IMF loan is considered a crucial financial lifeline.
