Egypt’s foreign debt leaps 40% to $67B in 1st half of 2016/17

CAIRO – 2 April 2017: Egypt’s foreign debt soared to $67 billion by the end of December compared to 48 billion a year earlier, marking a 40 percent increase, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said in a Sunday report.

Gross domestic debt also surged to three trillion EGP during the first half of fiscal year 2016/17 (to end June 30), up from 2.4 trillion EGP in the same period a year earlier, a rise of 600 billion EGP (29 percent).

Egypt has expanded its borrowing from local banks and international lenders over the past few years to fill a growing budget deficit that is projected to record 322 billion by the end of the current fiscal year.

Cairo has received fresh financing from multilateral bank:; $1 billion from the World Bank (WB), the second tranche of a $3 billion-loan agreement, in addition to $500 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

In a move aimed to revive an economy hit by political turmoil and currency shortage, Egypt applied some painful reforms in November, a step that helped the country clinch a $12 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund to support is ambitious economic reform plan. Egypt received $2.7 billion as the first tranche of the IMF loan and the second is expected in June, after an official review of by the fund.