Egypt rejects loans worth $39.3B since 2018: deputy planning minister

CAIRO – 8 May 2024: Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development Ahmed Kamaly noted Wednesday at the plenary session of the House of Representatives that the government had begun reducing the amount of loans acquired since 2018.

The deputy minister stated that, in the past six years, Egypt received loans worth a total of $8.7 billion, while others worth a total of $39.3 billion were rejected, after feasibility studies had shown that they would not be viable.

The ministry announced in April that Egypt's foreign debt rose by $3.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023 to record $168 billion. On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance revealed that it was setting a strategy to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to less than 80 percent by mid-2027.

According to Statista, the ratio hit 95.91 percent in 2023 and is estimated to drop to 60.67 percent in 2029. Further, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) released in December a breakdown of the amounts of external debt service to be paid back in the following years. That is $29.23 billion in 2024, $19.43 billion in 2025, and $22.94 billion in 2026.  

Loans worth $52.9 billion were disbursed by multilateral institutions. The top creditor is the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with $21.2 billion, according to the CBE. The other major ones are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ($12.3 billion), European Investment Bank ($4.8 billion), African Development Bank ($2.9 billion), and Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development ($2.2 billion).

Then come Arab countries with $46.2 billion. Those are mainly the UAE ($20.9 billion), Saudi Arabia ($12.2 billion), Kuwait ($7.1 billion), and Qatar ($4 billion).

Further, there are $8.8 billion that were given by five members of Paris Club. Those are Germany ($2.4 billion), Japan and France ($2.3 billion each), and the UK and the U.S. ($0.9 billion each). Moreover, China issued loans worth $8.3 billion.