IMF staff and Egyptian officials are close to finalizing a new financial support package for Egypt, the Fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said during a media roundtable on Thursday. “We are in this very last stretch where we are working on the details of implementation … we’re not talking about a long protracted period at all,” Georgieva said.

Egypt is at the top of the Fund’s priority list: “Working with Egypt is a very high priority. Both because it matters to the Egyptian economy and the Egyptian people, but also because it matters more broadly in regional context,” she said.

The Fund is happy with our progress: An IMF delegation spent almost more than two weeks in Cairo, meeting Egyptian officials to iron out the details of the agreement. The delegation wrapped up its visit on Thursday, having extended its stay by at least two days. Egyptian authorities made “excellent progress” on the conditions that should be met before the Fund moves forward with the long-stalled first and second reviews of Egypt’s USD 3 bn loan program, delegation head Vladkova Hollar said in a statement. The two sides “agreed on the main policy elements of the program. The authorities expressed a strong commitment to act promptly on all critical aspects of Egypt’s economic reform program.”

But no word on how big the package will be: There’s no consensus on how big the loan will be, with local and international outlets putting the figure between USD 6-10 bn. Our sources agree, with seven who have knowledge of the talks putting the package in that range. It appears we have two options: Go for a gradual, managed float and take on less funding — or go for a full float and get a larger assistance package.

The one thing we know: In all cases, the value of the program will include the USD 3 bn the IMF had originally committed.

What’s next? The IMF and Egyptian authorities will continue discussions virtually “to finalize the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP), and identify the magnitude of additional support from the IMF and other bilateral and multilateral development partners,” Hollar said.

How long before we have a package in place? It’s unclear, but chatter in policymaking circles is that it could take as long as 8-10 days.

Will it be “devalue, then get a package”? Or “get more money, then devalue”? It’s anyone’s guess, but it appears the answer lies in part on how much money we ultimately sign up for.

Will that bilateral support include a massive UAE real estate buy? Chatter ripped through Egypt on Wednesday night and Thursday that officials had lined up a USD 22 bn land sale to the United Arab Emirates. Officials have privately downplayed the idea. We think there were (or are) early-stage talks on investment, but last week’s rumors were heavily overblown.

** Read more: EnterpriseAM last week ran a deep dive into everything you need to know about our imminent IMF package and EGP devaluation.

International coverage: The Financial Times and Bloomberg had the story.

Tags: