Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Sunday that Egypt is seeking an aid package from the International Monetary Fund to offset the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a televised press conference with the central bank governor and other ministers, Madbouly said the loan would be negotiated "within days".
But he did not specify the size of the one-year financial aid package the government was seeking from the IMF alongside technical assistance.
He said the aid package was crucial given that flights are grounded and tourism halted.
"No one knows when this crisis will end so we wanted to take some measures that would build on the economy's gains, especially after the complete shutdown of the aviation and tourism sectors," Madbouly said.
Egypt's tourism sector earned $12.6 billion in 2019, the highest figure in nearly a decade.
But the impact of coronavirus has been severe. Foreign reserves dropped from $45.5 billion in February to $40.1 billion at the end of the march, central bank governor Tarek Amer said.
Planning Minister Hala Saeed said that even though the "unprecedented crisis" prompted by the virus had affected global markets, Egypt was still on track to achieve 4.5 percent growth this year.
Lockdown restrictions were loosened with the beginning of Ramadan, allowing shops and malls to trade on weekends and reducing curfew hours by an hour to 9pm until 6am.
Egypt has recorded 4,319 COVID-19 cases.
The country previously signed a $12 billion aid package with the Washington-based IMF in 2016, with the last tranche paid out last year.
