Two cheers for the general

WHEN you have no other options left, you may as well bow to the inevitable. That is what Egypt’s president did last week. With a budget deficit running at over 12% of GDP and a dollar shortage driving the black-market value of the Egyptian pound to barely half its official price, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi had no choice. Back in August the IMF had offered the former general a $12bn lifeline, but it came with tough conditions attached. At long last he has fulfilled them, and the IMF money will soon start to flow. But this must be the beginning, not the end, of his reforms.