Egypt's debt-to-GDP ratio fell to 90.6% during 2020/21

CAIRO – 29 July 2021: Egypt came among the best countries in reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio despite the Coronavirus pandemic, which affected economic growth rates, revenues and expenditures and led many countries to increase debt rates, according to Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said Thursday.

Maait said in a statement that the debt-to-GDP ratio fell to 90.6 percent during the last fiscal year 2020-2021, compared to 108 percent during the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

He added that Egypt succeeded in extending the life of the debt from less than 1.3 years before June 2017 to 3.45 years in June 2021, thus reducing the cost of financing the budget deficit and the development plan.

The minister also mentioned that the finance has also succeeded in reducing the cost of debt service to 36% of total expenditures during the fiscal year 2020-2021, despite the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, compared to 40% of total expenditures during the year 2019-2020.

He pointed out that it is intended to reduce the cost of debt service to 31.5 percent of total expenditures during the current fiscal year 2021/2022.