FILE - Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma'it
CAIRO – 13 January 2019: Ministry of Finance obtained the approval of the Council of Ministers to issue international bonds and the procedures have been started with a value of not less than $3 billion and will not exceed $ 7 billion, Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma’it said.
Ma’it added on the sidelines of the third annual Investment Conference in the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday that there is openness to all currencies, markets and products.
In October 2018, Mait launched a pan-Asian roadshow to promote its international bonds in the South Korean capital, Seoul. The promotion campaign continued in November in several important Asian markets, topped by Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
CAIRO - 8 October 2018: Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Mait launched on Sunday a pan-Asian roadshow to promote its international bonds in the South Korean capital, Seoul. The promotion campaign will continue in November in several important Asian markets, topped by Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
He pointed out that the deputy minister and assistant minister made a promotional trip to Japan and Singapore. The minister is scheduled to join him on Monday in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and China.
"We intend to diversify currencies, products and markets to find good financing alternatives,” the minister stated.
Commenting on the timing of Egypt's receipt of the IMF's fifth tranche of $2 billion, he said: "negotiations with the IMF are moving in the right direction thanks to close cooperation between both sides and there will be a declaration in this regard soon."
On Oct. 31, IMF and Egypt reached a staff-level agreement to offer Egypt the fifth installment of IMF’s $12 billion extended fund facility arrangement, amounting to $2 billion.
Egypt should have received the fifth installment of IMFs loan by December but IMF postponed a review of Egypt's economic reform program.
An Egyptian senior official source attributed earlier the delay to talks over some elements of the government’s economic program, stating that IMF insisted on the timing of the announcement about the fuel pricing mechanism as one of the main issues discussed. “The mechanism links local fuel prices to international ones, and is a key part of the government’s plans to cut costs.”
By receiving the fifth installment, the total disbursements under the program will reach about $10 billion.
He pointed out that the budget for the next fiscal year 2019/2020 aims to achieve a total deficit of 7 percent of GDP, to fall to 5 percent in fiscal year 20/21 and 21/22.
The minister added that the volume of the public debt fell from 108 percent of GDP in 2016 to 98 percent of GDP in 2018; “we seek to reach 93 percent in 2019, and decline to 80-82 percent of GDP in 2020/2021,” he continued.
In the beginning of January, President Abdel Fatah al Sisi held a meeting with the ministerial economic committee, and directed the committee to work on reducing the public debt and budget deficit in the new budget by continuing the implementation of the comprehensive economic reform program.
CAIRO - 3 January 2018: President Abdel Fatah al Sisi held a meeting on Thursday with the ministerial economic committee, in which he discussed the proposed budget plan for new fiscal year 2019/2020.
CAIRO - 14 April 2018: Egypt targets a budget deficit of around 6.2 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2019/2020, a statement from the Finance Ministry said Friday. Egypt targets a budget deficit of 8.4 percent of GDP in the new budget of fiscal year 2018/19, which will start on July 1.
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