The Ministry of Finance intends to issue bids for treasury bills and bonds worth EGP 186bn in February as part of a larger plan for the government to borrow EGP 602.25bn from the local market during the third quarter of FY 2021/22.
The financial plan includes issuing 16 treasury bill bids worth EGP 125bn and 15 treasury bond bids worth EGP 61bn this month.
The ministry focused most of its treasury bill issuances on 182-day bids, as bids worth EGP 51bn will be launched, in addition to 273-day bids worth EGP 36bn. It is also scheduled to offer 364-day bills worth EGP 27bn and 91-day bills worth EGP 11bn.
It has also intensified the offering of short-term bonds significantly in February and scheduled to issue “Zero Coupon” bonds for a period of one and a half years at a value of EGP 48bn.
This month, the ministry is also scheduled to issue two-year bonds worth EGP 2bn, three-year bonds worth EGP 5bn, five-year bonds worth EGP 2.5bn, seven-year bonds worth EGP 1.75bn, 10-year bonds worth EGP 1.25bn, and 15-year bonds worth EGP 500m.
Banks operating in the Egyptian market are the largest sectors investing in treasury bonds and bills, which the government periodically offers to cover the budget deficit.
These bonds and bills are offered through 15 banks that participate in the primary dealer system in the primary market, and these banks resell part of them in the secondary market to individual investors and local and foreign bodies.
The CBE has recently revealed that the total outstanding balances of treasury bills decreased to EGP 1.445trn in November 2021, compared to EGP 1.47trn in October 2021.
According to the CBE, the volume of public sector banks’ investments in treasury bills amounted to about EGP 210.098bn in November, compared to EGP 183.807bn in October. The share of private sector banks amounted to EGP 316.727bn, compared to EGP 330.611bn, and specialised banks EGP 40.221bn, compared to EGP 45.216bn. Moreover, Foreign bank investments in treasury bills amounted to EGP 38.558bn, compared to EGP 40.704bn.
