CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s finance minister said in a television interview on Sunday that Egypt’s external debt would reach $53.4 billion if his country receives an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.

Last week Egypt said it was seeking $4 billion a year over three years from the IMF to help plug a funding gap. The government hopes to finalise the deal in August.

A two-week IMF mission arrived in Cairo over the weekend to negotiate an IMF loan package.

(Reporting by Ali Abdelatti; Writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Sandra Maler)