Qatar Offers $2.5 Billion in Aid to Egypt

Meant to help struggling nation's currency crisis

Qatar threw Egypt an economic lifeline on Tuesday, announcing it had lent Egypt another $2 billion and given it an extra $500 million outright to help control a currency crisis.

Political strife has set off a rush to convert Egyptian pounds to dollars over the past several weeks, sending the currency to a record low against the U.S. dollar and draining foreign reserves to a critical level.

The government said it expected an International Monetary Fund technical committee to visit Cairo in two to three weeks' time to resume talks on a crucial $4.8 billion loan to plug balance of payments and budget deficits.