Egypt to sign IMF agreement in March? Egypt could reach a post-loan agreement with the IMF by March, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told Euromoney. “We have already started talking with the IMF about a future engagement and we have been in informal discussion about what will be the coming engagement, and we have put a target to finish this discussion by end of March,” he said.

What we know so far: The Finance Ministry has telegraphed several times this year that it is eyeing up an agreement with the fund after the current three-year USD 12 bn extended fund facility ends in November. Maait told Bloomberg initially that the ministry was aiming to agree a two-year program by October, a plan that was swiftly put down by the fund, which declined to enter talks until the end of the current program. The IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Director Jihad Azour said last week that any future engagement would likely focus on developing the private sector, strengthening welfare provisions, and increasing the transparency of state organizations. In a research note cited yesterday by the press, Bank of America said talks could produce a non-loan agreement with a mandatory reserve tranche.