Egyptian authorities will secure the additional financing needed for the government’s economic programme in coordination with the IMF, which has agreed, in principle, to lend the Arab country USD12bn, a senior official said. Chris Jarvis, head of the IMF delegation to Cairo, told the Financial Times Egypt needs to line up USD5-6bn in bilateral financing for the first year before the board’s review. Ahmed Kouchouk, Egypt’s Deputy Minister of Finance, said this effort will be done “in coordination between the IMF and the authorities.” Egypt is “confident that this will be done in the coming weeks,” he said in a phone interview on Saturday. Kouchouk said the IMF was aware of Egypt’s financing requirements before the final talks in Cairo to reach the staff-level agreement. (Bloomberg)