It was another econ-heavy night to wrap up one very econ-heavy week, as the nation’s talking heads continued their coverage of our IMF loan agreement.

A larger IMF package won’t come easy: The Fund is “seriously” considering at least doubling our USD 3 bn loan agreement to USD 6-10 bn but that hinges on two factors — the government providing sufficient proof that it can bring inflation down to a single digit figure and having sufficient FX reserves to keep the EGP from freefalling when the CBE floats the currency, House Budget Committee head Fakhri El Fiqi told Yahduth Fi Misr’s Sherif Amer (watch, runtime: 4:22). Amer also interviewed economist Mostafa Badra, who said that the IMF would increase the loan program proportionately with how much the central bank is willing to devalue the EGP (watch, runtime: 7:40).

Our FX shortage means price hikes all over: “As long as we have a USD problem, we’ll have problems regarding everything else,” Ala Masouleety’s Ahmed Moussa said (watch, runtime: 3:19). His statement echoed across the airwaves with deputy head of the Federation of Egyptian Industries’ (FEI) building materials industries division, Kamal El Dessouki telling Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 4:11 | 6:38) that if the state doesn’t bridge the gap between the official and black market USD rate “none of the commodity-related issues in Egypt will be solved.”

CBE says no new daily withdrawal caps here:The central bank’s ceiling on cash withdrawals remains unchanged — at EGP 150k for both companies and individuals, it said in a statement (pdf) yesterday. This came following a number of local media reports that said otherwise. “Unfortunately, media outlets were sharing rumors based on a dated central bank statement,” Moussa said (watch, runtime: 7:10).

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