The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Sunday foreign investments in Egyptian treasury bills (T-Bills) increased about EGP 21bn ($1.56bn) to about EGP 310.6bn ($19.89bn) in February, compared to EGP 289.4bn ($18.349bn) in January.
Foreign investments in the Egyptian government debt instruments have witnessed a strong recovery since the beginning of 2019, especially with a large difference between the return of those instruments and that of any other investments, whether regionally or internationally.
In a different matter, the CBE revealed the increase in net foreign assets in the Egyptian banking sector to EGP 75.1bn, an increase of 25%, during the period from July 2019 to January 2020.
The CBE stated in a report issued on Sunday that this rise came as a result of an increase in net foreign assets at the CBE by EGP 40bn and net foreign assets at banks by EGP 35.1bn.
It pointed out that the local assets of the banking system also increased to EGP 201.7bn during the same period.
The value of credit facilities granted by banks operating in the local market to their customers amounted to EGP 1.8839trn, an increase of EGP 29.5bn (1.6%), during the period from July 2019 to January 2020, according to the CBE.
It was supported by the increase in credit facilities for non-government borrowers by about EGP 60.2bn, at a rate of 4.6%, while the volume of facilities granted to the government decreased by EGP 30.7bn.
Credit facilities refer to loans granted by banks to their customers, in addition to letters of credit to cover imports.
The CBE explained that the increase in the facilities granted to non-government customers came as a result of the increase in the size of the facilities in the local currency EGP 71.4bn while the facilities in foreign currencies decreased EGP 11.2bn.
It pointed out that the private business sector obtained about 58.6% of the total non-governmental credit facilities granted by banks to various economic sectors.
According to CBE, the industrial sector came in the forefront of the sectors funded by banks, as it alone received about 31.8% of the total facilities, followed by the services sector which received 26%, and then the trade sector by 10.6%.
As usual, the agriculture sector received the lowest percentage of the credit facilities granted by banks to various economic sectors, as it acquired only 1.9% in January.
According to the CBE, there are other sectors, which were not mentioned in detail, including the household sector, which received about 29.7% of these facilities.
In the same context, the CBE revealed that the total deposits in the banking system increased EGP 10.342bn to EGP 4.246trn in January, compared to EGP 4.236tn in December 2019.
Government deposits declined EGP 10.668bn to about EGP 602.915bn in January, compared to EGP 613.583bn in December, while non-governmental deposits increased by EGP 21.01bn to EGP 3.643trn in January, compared to EGP 3.622trn in December.
