It was all about the IMF on last night’s talk shows following the executive board’s approval of our long-awaited USD 3 bn loan program on Friday (we have all the details in this morning’s news well, above).

The IMF agreement is no “magic wand” to solve all our economic woes but it will help pave the way for a new monetary policy, Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi said yesterday (watch, runtime: 2:35), saying that it is within the state’s hands to learn from this economic crisis and take action towards the needed monetary policy.

What’s in it for us? “In the short-term the loan will help us resolve issues like our backlogged ports, bridge the gap between official and black market USD exchange rates and stabilize prices. These short-term plans need some USD 6-9 bn. As for the long-term, we could be looking at more inflows, higher employment rate and higher income,” El Hadidi said (watch, runtime: 3:58).

The Egyptian economy will stabilize as soon as our backlogged ports start clearing up, CIB non-executive chairman Hisham Ezz Al Arab told El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 3:28). Clearing up the ports won’t be as expensive as people believe because many importers no longer want their products and will decide to auction it off rather than going through the hassle of releasing them from the ports, he added.

Why is a flexible EGP good news? Flexible currency makes it easier for a country to absorb external shocks, Ezz Al Arab said (watch, runtime: 16:10). If the state had adopted a flexible exchange rate it would have helped lessen the USD 22 bn in outflows we saw earlier this year, he explained. Also covering the news: Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 11:41) and Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 5:25).

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Demand for the expat car import scheme hasn’t lived up to expectations hence the cabinet amending the process last week (watch, runtime: 19:21). The amendments came in response to complaints the state has received, customs official Ahmed Abu Bakr told Kelma Akhira. The amendments include no longer requiring buyers to deposit fees for the program three months before transfers and waiving the requirement to have the Foreign Ministry certifying residences, bank statements and other documents related to the imported vehicles data was also scrapped.

The amendments are unlikely to drum up demand for the scheme, Alaa Selim, the secretary-general of the General Union for Egyptians Abroad said, adding that devalued EGP is making it more difficult for people to partake in the program. Finance Minister Mohamed Maait had previously said that the scheme could raise up to USD 2.5 bn in FX.