IMF cautions Egypt on loan The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that finalisation of an agreement for a crucial $4.8bn loan to Egypt will depend on economic conditions in the country remaining unchanged. In a carefully worded statement the IMF underlined that the loan would depend on the government's ability to issue a revised budget adopting agreed tax and spending reforms, and on continued assurances from foreign partners that they would fulfil their commitments to provide additional finance. "Consideration of the loan by the IMF Executive Board will require that there is no major change in the economic outlook and implementation plans . . . and that assurances from Egypt's bilateral and multilateral partners regarding their expected provision of programme financing will be forthcoming," said the IMF. The statement was the fund's first response to the political crisis in Egypt sparked last week by President Mohamed Morsi's assumption of sweeping powers. It came as thousands of the president's opponents poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of last year's resolution, to protest against the decision. Demonstrators in the square chanted "the people want to bring down the regime," echoing the chants used against former president Hosni Mubarak before his downfall. The IMF estimates that Egypt is expected to receive a total package of $14.5bn, including the fund's loan. The president's announcement on Thursday, placing his decisions beyond judicial scrutiny, has plunged the country into fresh turmoil with opponents calling for massive protests to press him to rescind his decree. A meeting with the country's senior judges on Monday has not diffused the crisis. Mr Morsi's spokesman said afterwards that the president had told the judges that only decisions considered "acts of sovereignty" would be protected from judicial reviews. There have been no changes to the text of Mr Morsi's edict, however, and the political opposition has dismissed the compromise as vague and meaningless. On Tuesday protesters set off from mosques around Cairo and were expected to converge on Tahrir Square by early evening. Demonstrations are planned every day until Friday. Officials in Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group say he was forced into assuming additional powers by an obstructionist judiciary intent on dismantling elected institutions and sabotaging the return to stability under Islamist rule. A court had disbanded the newly elected parliament earlier this year and the judiciary had been studying legal challenges to the elected Shura Council, or upper chamber of parliament, and to a controversial panel drafting the country's new constitution. The IMF loan is seen as crucial for restoring investor confidence in the Egyptian economy, which has been severely battered by political turbulence since last year's revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak as president. Cairo also hopes it will stem the decline in its international reserves and avert the possibility of a plunge in the value of the pound. The Egyptian government signed an initial agreement with the IMF last week, and the deal is scheduled to be presented to the Fund's executive board on December 19.