The Ministry of Finance has said that the outstanding balance of local treasury bills and bonds amounted to about EGP 4.457trn in January 2023.
According to the latest report published by the ministry on its website, the volume of outstanding balances of treasury bills amounted to about EGP 1.94trn, with about EGP 860.842bn for 364-day bills, about EGP 138.748bn for 273-day bills, and about EGP 474.867bn for 182-day bills, in addition to about EGP 466.336bn in 91-day bills.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the maturity date for these bills extends from 7 February 2023 to 30 January 2024, taking into account that other bills with the same deadlines are re-issued on a weekly basis.
This comes as the Ministry of Finance revealed that the volume of outstanding balances of treasury bonds at the end of September amounted to approximately EGP 2.516trn, of which about EGP 260.135b are zero coupon bonds.
According to the Finance Ministry, the maturity date for these bonds extends from 4 February 2023 to 18 January 2037, also taking into account that other bonds are re-bid on a weekly, periodic basis, just like the bills.
The banks operating in the Egyptian market are the largest sectors investing in bonds and treasury bills that the government offers periodically to cover the state budget deficit.
Figures obtained by Daily News Egypt earlier revealed the government’s intention to borrow EGP 1.05575trn from the local market during the third quarter of the fiscal year 2022/2023, with the aim of financing the state’s general budget deficit.
According to the government’s plan, the Ministry of Finance aims to issue 52 bills bids worth EGP 1.014trn and 30 bond bids worth EGP 41.25bn in the period from the first of last January until the end of next March, which reflects the government’s need for liquidity in the short term.
These bonds and bills are offered through 15 banks that participate in the system of “primary dealers” in the “primary market”, and those banks resell part of them in the “secondary market”, to individual and local and foreign institutional investors.
In the same context, the Ministry of Finance revealed the size of the outstanding balances of Egypt’s foreign bonds until the end of January 2023.
According to the ministry, there are bonds in US dollars amounting to about $34.21bn, which were offered from 11 June 2015 to 30 September 2021, and are due during the period from 21 February 2023 to 16 February 2061.
The interest rate on these bonds ranges between 3.875% and 8.875%, with an average of 7.126%.
The Finance Ministry indicated that there are other bonds worth €4bn, which were offered from 16 April 2018 to 11 April 2019, and are due during the period from 11 April 2025 to 11 April 2031.
The return rate on these bonds ranges between 4.75% and 6.375%, with an average of 5.477%.
In addition to that, there are other bonds in Japanese yen, amounting to about ¥60bn, equivalent to $500m. They were offered on 31 March 2022, due on 31 March 2027, and the return rate is 0.85%.
