Egypt has received the USD2bn deposit promised from Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported last night with Reuters quoting the Prime Minister saying the deposit was received in September. In addition, other local news sources quoted two senior officials at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and Ministry of Finance saying that Egypt has now raised the entire USD5-6bn in additional funding required by the IMF before the ratification of the loan agreement, having received funds from different sources, incl. Germany. We believe the composition of the package is as follows: USD2bn Saudi Arabia (deposit at CBE), USD2bn China (currency swap), USD1bn UAE (deposit at CBE) and USD1bn from European countries (mostly, if not entirely Germany). The finalised funding package completes the final building block for the country to ask for a board meeting to ratify the Staff Level agreement it signed with the IMF on 11 August. The funds should raise the CBE’s foreign reserves to cUSD22bn, a level that we see as sufficient to start with the FX adjustment process. (Mohamed Abu Basha)