State’s finances good, no cause for concern, assures Finance Ministry

The Ministry of Finance released a statement assuring the nation that work would continue as normal in the ministry and in all its authorities and sectors, particularly the tax department and customs outlets nationwide, despite yesterday’s abrupt changes in the government.

Late Wednesday night, Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appointed Supreme Constitutional Court head Adly Mansour as interim president, effectively ousting former President Mohamed Morsi, and temporarily suspended the Constitution.

The nation’s financial situation is good and there is no cause for fear regarding the state's daily financial operations, or its ability to meet the people’s need for basic goods and public services, the ministry stated.

As expected, banks resumed work as usual on Thursday. Hesham Ramez, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) confirmed late on Wednesday that banks would resume normal operations, but that closing times would be determined day by day.

On Wednesday the CBE instructed banks to close at 1 pm, before millions of protesters demonstrating against Morsi flooded the streets in advance of the Armed Forces’ statement.

The International Monetary Fund said it was following the developments in Egypt to see who would take the reins of the country before considering resumption of talks with Cairo on a long-awaited US$4.8 billion loan.

Achieving broad political consensus on the loan and implementing the required economic reforms was a thorn in the side of Morsi's government throughout his short presidency, with parties from across the political spectrum criticizing the lack of transparency that characterized the negotiations between the Egyptian government and the IMF.

But the lack of consensus didn’t stop former Planning Minister Amr Darrag from telling state news agency MENA early in June that Egypt would sign the long-awaited loan deal with the fund by the end of the month.