On Wednesday at Ewart Memorial Hall, the American University in Cairo (AUC) – Ekne3ney Shokran (translated into English as Convince Me) initiative held its second economic debate. The debate addressed the motion: “Egypt should proceed and borrow from the IMF … Agree or Disagree?” The percentage of people voting against the IMF loan to Egypt hit 71% out of the 500 attendees who were students, experts, politicians and thinkers.
The debate is conducted in a competition-like structure where the audience voted once at the beginning of the debate and a second time at the end of the debate, and the goal of each panelist is to convince the greatest number of attendees with his stance on the issue. At the end of the debate, the distribution of the second votes is compared with the distribution of the first votes and the panelist that persuaded the greatest number of individuals to change their stance on the issue is named as the winner of the debate.
Arguing for the motion and for borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was Hany Genena – Head of Research at Pharos Securities Brokerage – alongside Abdallah Shehata Khattab – Associate Professor at Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University and member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Genena and Shehata said the IMF loan is pivotal for filling the state’s budget deficit of EGP 150 billion. The state’s Central Bank is unable to provide more than EGP 80 billion only, they added.
The IMF loan to Egypt is a testimony to the state’s withstanding economy and a guarantee to foreign capital flows return, Genena and Shehata noted.
On the other end of the spectrum, Dr. Samer Atallah, Assistant Professor of Economics, American University in Cairo for Economics and Wael Gamal, Managing Editor of Al-Shorouk newspaper, argued against borrowing from the IMF. Atallah and Gamal emphasized on the importance of rejecting the IMF loan as it would eventually lead to further economic downturn. Adopting the borrowing policy is going to protect the old regime’s interests and to ensure the US hegemony over the region.
