On another very quiet night on the airwaves, the only tidbit of relevant discussion was … significant.

Egypt is reportedly seeking north of USD 7 bn from the IMF under the one-year rapid financing instrument and stand-by arrangement the government has requested, ‘Ala Mas’ouleety host Ahmed Moussa claimed. Moussa also claimed that the first USD 2.7 bn tranche of the funding will land as early as 10 May, with the second tranche set to follow in June (watch, runtime: 4:19). An unnamed government official had said earlier this week that the package would likely be closer to the USD 3 bn neighborhood, and analysts expect the figure to range between EGP 2.8 bn and USD 4 bn.

We’re still going to take all this with a grain of salt, partially because cretin / host Ahmed Moussa incorrectly told his viewers that the IMF executive board has already approved Egypt’s request for funding. The IMF has only confirmed that Egypt submitted a request for funding, and the board’s calendar for the next seven days does not include a discussion of our request.