Egypt's foreign debt rises 15% during 2020

CAIRO – 12 April 2021: Egypt's foreign debt amounted rose by $ 16.525 billion, representing 15 percent in 2020, compared to 2019, according to data issued by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

CBE said that Egypt's foreign debt registered $129.195 billion at the end of 2020, compared to $112.67 billion at the end of December 2019.

It added that Egypt's long-term foreign debt rose by $ 15.851 billion during 2020, to $ 117.237 billion, compared to $ 101.386 billion in December 2019.

It explained that Egypt's short-term foreign debt rose by $ 674 million, to reach $ 11.958 billion last December, compared to $ 11.284 billion in December of the previous year.

The long-term external debt represents 90.7 percent of Egypt's total external debt, while the short-term debt ratio is 9.26 percent.

The CBE stated that the government’s external debt rose during 2020 by $ 15.784 billion, to record $77.205 billion at the end of last December, compared to $61.421 billion at the end of 2019.

It pointed out that the long-term government external debt rose to $ 75.205 billion compared to $ 61.421 billion at the end of 2019, and the short-term government external debt rose to $ 2 billion in December 2020 from zero.

The data revealed that the central bank's external debt decreased by $1.849 billion in 2020, to record $26.002 billion, compared to $27.851 billion at the end of 2019.

The share of the external government debt to the total external debt is 59.7 percent.

The Central Bank stated that its long-term foreign debt decreased to $23.180 billion in December 2020, from $24.694 billion in December 2019.

The short-term foreign debt of the Central Bank decreased to 2.822 billion dollars, compared to 3.156 billion in the previous year.

He said that the external debts on banks increased by 3.43 billion dollars last year, to 12.167 billion in December 2020, compared to 8.737 billion at the end of 2019, while bank debts represented 9.4% of the total external debt at the end of 2020.

The Central Bank reported that the short-term foreign debt on banks rose to 4.026 billion dollars at the end of last December, from 3.369 billion in December 2019.

According to the data, long-term debts owed by banks rose to 8.140 billion dollars last December, from 5.368 billion in 2019.

The Central Bank stated that external debts on other sectors decreased by the end of December 2020, registering $ 13.820 billion, compared to $ 14.659 billion at the end of 2019.