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Egypt’s external debt has reached $81 billion, the country’s finance minister said in a television interview on Wednesday.
The Egyptian government has developed a new strategy concerning lowering the debt levels for the upcoming financial year, Amr el-Garhy said.
Egypt’s foreign debt rose to $79 billion in the 2016-17 fiscal year which ended in June, up 42 percent from 2015-16, the central bank announced in late September, stressing that “foreign debt is within the safe amounts as per international standards.”
The cash-strapped country has been borrowing from abroad to fund its budget deficit and boost its balance of foreign reserves after a years-long dollar shortage sapped its ability to import and slowed economic activity.
