Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi appointed on Thursday Housing Minister Mustafa Madbouly as acting prime minister and tasked him to form a new cabinet, a spokesman for the presidency said. The government, including Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, resigned this week to pave the way for Sisi to appoint a new government following his re-election to a second term in office. Ministers in the outgoing cabinet have been assuming a caretaking role. Madbouly has been housing minister since Sisi first took office in 2014. The 52-year-old stood in as prime minister for nearly two months from November when Ismail travelled to Germany for medical treatment. Ismail had been prime minister since 2014. Ismail oversaw tough economic reforms tied to $12 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund which Cairo secured to ease a fiscal crisis that saw its deficit balloon to 12.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2015-16. Sisi on Saturday was sworn in for a second four-year term.