The Ministry of Finance intends to offer 34 tenders of treasury bills (T-bills) and bonds worth EGP 338.5bn during November, as part of the government’s plan to borrow EGP 878.5bn from the local market during the second quarter of fiscal year 2022/23, with the aim of financing the state’s general budget deficit.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), which undertakes this task on behalf of the government, will issue on 20 November T-bill tenders worth EGP 271bn and 14 bond offerings worth EGP 67.5bn.
According to the plan, the ministry is scheduled to offer 5 bids worth EGP 39bn for a term of 91 days, the same amount worth EGP 24bn for a term of 182 days, and 5 bids worth EGP 101.5bn for a term of 273 days, while 5 bids for bills with a term of 364 are scheduled to be offered worth EGP 106.5bn.
In November, the Finance Ministry will issue 5 “Zero Coupon” treasury bonds bids for a year and a half worth EGP 29bn, 5 bids for 3-year bonds worth EGP 36.5bn, two 5-year bids worth EGP 1.5bn, and two 7-year bids worth EGP 1.5bn.
The banks operating in the Egyptian market are the largest sectors investing in bonds and treasury bills, which the government regularly issues to cover the state’s general budget deficit.
These bonds and bills are offered through 15 banks that participate in the primary dealers system in the primary market, and these banks resell part of them in the secondary market to individual investors and local and foreign institutions.
The Ministry of Finance revealed earlier that the volume of outstanding balances of local treasury bills and bonds reached about EGP 4.145trn in August 2022.
According to the latest report published by the ministry on its website, the volume of outstanding balances of bills amounted to about EGP 1.618trn while the volume of outstanding balances of bonds amounted to about EGP 2.527trn, of which about EGP 237.391bn are “Zero Coupon” bonds.
