Egypt to issue initiative to restructure faltering factories

CAIRO – 14 May 2018: Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Governor Tarek Amer announced an initiative to repay the loans of 5,000 faltering factories to banks, through the scheduling of debts and exempting these factories from the percentage of penalties delay and the accrued interest to end disputes in the courts.

He pointed out to a local newspaper that the initiative will work on the operation of these troubled factories and their return to production.

According to Amer, the initiative will be announced within a week and will also cover the citizens, defaulting farmers on the repayment of their bank loans.

Amer revealed that there are around 67,000 cases in the courts against borrowers from banks, and they will be exempted from penalties delay and part of the interest in order to help them work and produce.

He further added that the government would pay a debt of $850 million to international oil companies.

He said that foreign currency inflows to banks operating in Egypt have risen to more than $120 billion since the flotation of the Egyptian currency in November 2016.

Amer announced targeting to pump LE 30 billion ($1.68 billion) into small enterprises to benefit 8-10 million citizens, adding that around LE 10 billion is going to facilitate medium enterprises.