The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) revealed that the gross domestic debt rose by about EGP 97bn at the end of March 2019 to reach EGP 4.205tr, compared to EGP 4.107tr at the end of December 2018.
In its monthly report released on Tuesday, the CBE pointed out that the domestic public debt represents about 79% of Egypt’s GDP.
According to the CBE, the amount of debt owed by the government reached EGP 3.6306tr at the end of March, an increase of EGP 508.8bn during the period from July 2018 to March 2019, equivalent to about 86.4% of the total domestic public debt.
The total domestic debt owed by public economic bodies reached EGP 307.6bn, equivalent to about 7.3% of the total domestic public debt.
The National Investment Bank owed about EGP 266.7bn, equivalent to about 6.3% of the total domestic public debt at the end of March.
Banks operating in the Egyptian market owns the largest share of the local government debt, as they are the largest investors in treasury bills and bonds periodically issued by the government to cover the deficit in the state budget.
Egypt’s external debt rose to $106.2bn at the end of March, compared with $96.6bn at the end of December 2018.
Of the total external debt, medium and long-term debt was $93.8bn, or 88.3%, while short-term debt accounted for 11.7%.
The government’s share of external debt in the first quarter of 2019 rose to about $53.8bn compared to about $48.1bn at the end of 2018.
The CBE’s debt stood at $28.5bn at the end of March, compared to about $28.3bn at the end of 2018.
Offshore bank debt rose to about $10.1bn up from about $7.7bn at the end of 2018, and other sector debts rose to $13.7bn, compared to $12.6bn at the end of 2018.
