KUWAIT CITY
By Hossam Abdel-Gawad
Kuwait is poised to offer a further $2 billion in assistance to Egypt to help the latter's faltering economy in the wake of the military's July 3 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, a high-profile official Kuwaiti source revealed Tuesday.
"We will increase our total pledged financial aid [to Egypt] to $6 billion. We have already offered $3 billion and steps are currently underway to send the remaining amount," the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Anadolu Agency by phone.
Following Morsi's ouster this summer, the official said, Kuwait had initially pledged $4 billion in assistance to Egypt. He noted that $2 billion had since been deposited at Egypt's central bank, while $1 billion worth of petroleum products had been shipped to the country.
An additional $1 billion grant to Egypt is still awaiting the approval of Kuwait's parliament, he added.
As for the latest aid pledges, the official said, details still remained unclear as to what form these would take. "Most of it will likely be in the form of petroleum products," the source said.
Since Morsi's July 3 ouster, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have pledged a combined total of $15.9 billion worth of aid to Egypt.
In the 2012/13 fiscal year, Egypt coughed up a whopping 128 billion Egyptian pounds (roughly $18.4 billion) – almost one quarter of the entire state budget – to subsidize the local petroleum sector.
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