Egypt’s external debt rises to $109.36B by end of Sep.

CAIRO - 19 January 2020: Egypt’s total external debt increased 17.47 percent at the end of September 2019, recording $109.363 billion, compared to $93.101 billion in September 2018, according to recent data issued by the World Bank.

The data revealed that external debts due on Egypt hit $108.699 billion in June 2019.

During the first nine months of 2019, Egypt’s external debt jumped by around $12.6 billion, the data showed.

According to the published data, the Egyptian Government allocated $58.86 billion for the state’s foreign debt, while $27.648 billion went to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), $9.2 billion to banks operating in Egypt, and $13.6 billion to the rest of the sectors.

As for the foreign liabilities owed by CBE, it fell 0.7 percent to $27.7 billion. The debt of the banking sector recorded $9.2 billion, retreating 3.2 percent. Likewise, the debt of other sectors decreased to $13.6 billion.

The World Bank data estimated the volume of long-term debt, which is more than one year in maturity at about $98.3 billion, equivalent to 89.9 percent of the total external debt stock, and the remaining $1 billion is in short-term debt.

Earlier, Governor of CBE Tarek Amer said in his speech at the International Finance Institute (IIF) that there are no risks from external debt, clarifying that long-term external debt varies between 10 to 59 years inmaturity, and a small percentage represents short-term debt which is for Arab countries and is renewed on an ongoing basis.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted in a report in mid-October on its recent review of the Egyptian economy that the value of Egypt’s external debt will rise in the next fiscal year to reach $109.7 billion, to rise to $111 billion during the fiscal year 21 / 2022; then declin to $109.4 billion in 22/2023, to rise again in 23/2024 to reach $112 billion.