Egypt’s external debt increased by $16bn to $108.7bn in fiscal year (FY) 2018/19, from $92.6bn in FY 2017/18, up 17.3 percent, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said.
The government’s share of external debt reached $57.3bn, while the CBE owed $27.98bn, banks operating in Egypt were $9.5bn in debt, and other sectors owed $13.92bn.
In general, the country’s external debt-to-GDP ratio was 36% in FY 2018/19, while it was 48.7% in Latin America, and 47.5% in the Middle East.
The short-term debt reached 10.2% in Egypt, 14.2% in Latin America, and 21.3% in the Middle East and Central Asia.
The external position report of the Egyptian economy was produced by the economic research sector in the CBE. The report tracked on a quarterly basis the international transactions that the Egyptian economy conducted. It relied, for this purpose, on the national statistics that are regularly compiled in line with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) prescriptions.
The CBE report said the external debt increased to $108.7bn in FY 2018/19 – of which $12bn recorded in the first half – up 17.3% compared to FY 2017/18. This increase came as a result of the rise in net disbursements of loans and facilities by $16.5bn, while most currencies of borrowing depreciated against the US dollar by $0.4bn.
source: Daily news Egypt
