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Officials turned down the IMF loan in June, arguing they did not want to saddle any new, incoming government with additional debt. But conditions have since deteriorated, with borrowing costs climbing while reserves dropped precipitously. While the government has blamed the fuel issue on the market and unscrupulous traders, analysts worry that it may be a product of the government's cash crunch. "If you don't have the cash to buy more gas, then you deal with a shortage and have to face the possibility of a black market," said Abdel-Moneim Said, an economic analyst with the Al-Ahram Strategic Center. "The government is trying to increase production, but local production is at capacity." Compounding the problems of paying for fuel, the government faces other pressures. The country has also seen borrowing costs spiral as its sovereign credit rating has been repeatedly downgraded by the three main reporting agencies. Meanwhile, it is looking for cost-cuts in hopes of realizing its target budget deficit of 8.6 percent of gross domestic product in the current fiscal year. The plan to cut energy subsidies that was approved by the government targeted some heavy industries, which have long benefited from low fuel costs. Cutting those subsidies may have been a prudent step, analysts said, but the fact that it sparked a public panic that prices at the pump would also be going up reflects the government's problems in communicating policy objectives to a population that, after roughly three decades of Mubarak rule, distrusts anything coming from officials. "This is another example of the lack of direction in terms of policy," said Said Hirsh, Mideast economist with Capital Economics in London. "If you put out notice that you're going to cut subsidies, you're going to get a run on stations." "I would imagine this (fuel issue) to be related to the sense of confidence in decisions the government is making," said Hirsh. Most officials agree subsidy cuts must happen in one form or another, especially since the gas subsidies benefit Egypt's rich as well. The issue is likely to come up during the government's discussions with the IMF over the $3.2 billion loan. Still, economists said the IMF probably won't demand drastic moves or impose stringent conditions, given the delicacy of the moment. "It's a standard IMF approach to look at subsidies," said Hirsh. "They would press the government on how to deal with it. But it would be impossible to deal with it straight away. They would be sensitive to the societal pressures."
[Associated
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