Egypt’s Premier Hisham Qandil metting with chief of International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde (Photo: Ahram Arabic News Website)
Egypt’s premier, Hisham Qandil, has met with the chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to continue talks over a $4.8 billion loan, state-run Arabic-language news website Al-Ahram reported Thursday.
Lagarde has welcomed supporting Egypt through the IMF, confirming that the fund’s delegation will arrive Cairo soon, Alaa Al-Hadidi, the Egyptian Cabinet’s spokesperson, told Al-Ahram.
Lagarde added during her speech at the annual WEF meeting, which started Wednesday in Switzerland, that Egyptian GDP will rise by 34 per cent if the rate of women’s employment is made equivalent to men.
According to the state-run statistics body CAPMAS, working Egyptian women reached 4.7 million in the third quarter of the last year, while the jobless rate among woman reached 24 per cent.
GDP at current prices rose from LE402.1 billion in Q1 of 2011/12 to LE445.8 billion in the corresponding quarter in 2012/13.
Short link: