Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil has said that the country would not be harmed by accepting a contentious $4.8 billion loan that Egypt is set to receive from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"Not one Egyptian will suffer from the implementation of the IMF programme for receiving the loan," the recently-appointed prime minister declared in a Sunday statement.

Egypt formally requested the loan during a visit to Cairo last week by IMF chief Christine Lagarde.

Several revolutionary movements and figures, meanwhile, have voiced opposition to the loan and its terms, demanding that the government reverse its decision.  

Since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak early last year, Egyptian activists have campaigned under the slogan 'Drop Egypt's Debts,' in an effort to raise awareness about the adverse repercussions of accepting loans from multilateral institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank.