Cairo - Mubasher: Tarek Amer, the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) governor, has said that Egypt signed an expanded financing agreement with foreign banks valued at $3.2 billion.
The purpose of this deal is to enhance the country’s foreign reserves and repay $14 billion in debt in 2018, Bloomberg reported.
Amer stated, in an interview held on Monday, that the repurchase transaction was increased to $3.2 billion from $2 billion, without referring to the deal’s duration.
In 2016, the Ministry of Finance issued $4 billion on the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) in coordination with the CBE.
Amer added that Egypt was able to hike the foreign reserves to $37 billion since the Egyptian pound flotation in November 2016. This increase was connected with the rise in foreign debts to $79 billion in June, compared to $55.8 billion last year.
Some of Egypt’s debtors such Saudi Arabia and the UAE have agreed to extend debt repayment to 2018.
Egypt’s foreign debt jumped in June 2017 to represent 34% of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 17% in the same period last year.
