Central Bank of Egypt releases report of economic developments

CAIRO - 25 June 2018: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced Sunday that total deposits at the banking sector rose by LE 52 billion in February, recording LE 3.446 trillion, up from LE 3.394 trillion in January.

In a report released Sunday, the CBE added that the total government deposits hit LE 543.5 billion, including LE 429.2 billion in local currency, and LE 114.2 billion in foreign currency.

It added that the non-governmental deposits rose in February to reach LE 2.902 trillion, against LE 2.865 trillion in the previous month.

It also pointed out that the total deposits in foreign currencies hit LE 696.9 billion, of which the public business sector got LE 37.4 billion, the private sector got about LE 187.7 billion and the family sector got around LE 464.7 billion.

On the other hand, domestic liquidity has increased to about LE 3.294 trillion at the end of February, registering a rise worth LE 376.7 billion, according to the CBE report.

The report highlighted the increase in domestic liquidity was reflected in the growth of money supply by nearly LE 36.4 billion equaling 5.1% and quasi money that increased by LE 340.3 billion equaling 15.4%.

The increase was the result of a rise in non-current deposits made in local currency, at a rate of LE 344.7 billion, while deposits in foreign currency dropped to LE 4.4 billion.

It also said that Egypt's domestic debt reached LE 3.414 trillion by the end of December 2017, representing 83.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

The domestic debt payable by the government amounted to LE 2.893 trillion with an increase of LE 207.8 billion from July to December last year, it added.

In Egypt, domestic debt is part of the total debt that is owed to creditors inside the country, including the government and the public economic bodies.

The CBE said that the banking sector loans rose by LE 27 billion by the end of February 2018, to record about LE 1.503 trillion, compared to LE 1.476 trillion in January 2018.

The bank added that the government sector loans reached LE 187.6 billion in local currency and LE 212.4 billion in foreign currency.

Meanwhile, private sector loans in local and foreign currencies increased to reach LE 1.1 trillion including 776.4 billion in local currency.