Egypt readies for reshuffle
January 5, 2013
A total of 10 new ministers were expected to be sworn in on Sunday, with three of the candidates belonging to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party.
Current Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Said was to be replaced by economist El-Morsi El-Sayed Hegazy, according to the official MENA news agency on Saturday.
Interior Minister Ahmed Gamaleddin was to hand over power to one of his deputies, General Mohammed Ibrahim - a police boss currently in charge of prisons.
Cabinet sources confirmed the changes. Eight other portfolios are also expected to change hands, with electricity, environment, communications and transport among them.
Paramount for the new government will be making a difference to the country's economic situation.
The political turmoil of the 2011 uprising against toppled leader Hosni Mubarak severely disrupted Egypt's security and economic stability. In the past two years, the economy has lost about 10 percent of its value against the US dollar. About a third of that drop has taken place in the past week, since the country's central bank began to auction currency reserves in large quantities.
An official from the International Monetary Fund was set to meet Egyptian leaders on Monday to discuss a proposed 3.64 billion euro ($4.8 billion) loan agreement.
rc/dr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)