The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said that foreign investments in Egyptian treasury bills (T-Bills) rose by the end of April 2019 to EGP 265.618bn, compared to the EGP 258.016bn in March. This is an increase of EGP 7.602bn.
Foreign investment in T-bills returned strongly after the exchange rate liberalisation decision on November 3, 2016, and the subsequent sharp rise in interest rates on the pound.
Moreover, foreign investment in T-bills reached about $11bn before January 25, 2011, but fell to less than $25m as of 2016.
Fakhry ElFiky, member of the board of directors at the CBE, said that the volume of foreign investments in government debt instruments from January to May 2019 amounted to about $5bn, to reach more than $17bn.
The investments of banks operating in the local market in the government T-Bills amounted to EGP 680.882bn during the month of April 2019, compared to EGP 703.509bn by the end of March. This is a decrease of EGP 22.627bn.
The CBE said that public sector banks’ investments in T-Bills amounted to about EGP 353.397bn at the end of April, compared to EGP 354.415bn at the end of March, a decline of EGP 1.018bn.
Private sector banks’ investments in T-Bills fell by EGP19.428bn in April to EGP 275.433bn compared to EGP 294.861bn by the end of March.
Investment of foreign banks’ branches in T-Bills declined to EGP 36.985bn in April, compared to EGP 39.881bn in March, a decrease of EGP 2.896bn.
On the other hand, T-bills investments of specialised banks increased to EGP 15.067bn, compared to EGP 14.325bn, an increase of EGP 742m.
The CBE’s figures showed that the volume of outstanding government T-Bills declined in April 2019 to about EGP 1.362tn, compared to EGP 1.371tn in March.
