CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Thursday he expected parliament to approve nominations for ministers in a cabinet reshuffle by the end of the month, state news agency MENA reported.

The previous cabinet reshuffle took place last March, when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi named 10 new ministers, including for the finance and investment portfolios.

Ismail said they had not yet finalised which ministries would be changed or the list of nominations, which he said would be completed next week before it was submitted to parliament, MENA reported.

He added that some ministries may be merged but did not specify which ones, the agency added.

Egypt is pushing ahead with painful economic reforms after securing a $12 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund in November.