Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt has succeeded in cutting its short-term external debt, represented in the US dollar-denominated treasury bills, by $3.25 billion in 2018 to $14 billion, the deputy finance minister said on Sunday.
The external debt has been reduced by using a proportion of the long-term bonds’ proceeds that have been offered in the international markets, Ahmed Kojak added in a statement.
This has positively impacted the indicators measuring local sovereign external debt by extending the debt’s maturity and reducing indebtedness, Kojak stressed.
The economic reform being implemented by the Egyptian government aims to cut indebtedness rate to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 80% in June 2022, he indicated.
He further noted that Egypt’s budget deficit rates improved remarkably last year and fell to 3.6% of GDP, compared to 4.2% in 2017, adding that deficit rate amounted to 5.3% of GDP in the past three years.
The North African nation plans to begin the Eurobond sale in the period between February and March in different currencies worth between $3 billion and $7 billion.
Egypt had raised $2.46 billion in April 2018 from eight-year and 12-year euro-denominated bonds sale at an interest of 4.75% and 5.625%, respectively.
