“But our priority is to meet the demands of the people,” he said.

“Our second priority is to honor our commitments to international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank,” he added.

“The policies we have devised in the last few days to facilitate customs duties and tax payment will not affect the state budget deficit in any way,” Radwan said. “Nor will the LE5 billion fund that we have established to compensate those affected by the upheaval.”

The minister denied that the government would raise funds via treasury bonds to finance the said policies.

In a related development, the Egyptian pound's value rose slightly on last week due to the improved political situation. Also, experts are projecting more foreign buying on the stock exchange once it reopens, ruling out any intervention by the central bank to inject money into the financial system in order to bolster the pound's value.

(Source: Al-Masry Al-Youm)