The Ministry of Finance revealed that the outstanding balance of local treasury bills (T-bills) and bonds amounted to about EGP 4.44trn in February 2023.
According to the latest report published by the ministry on its website, the outstanding balance of treasury bills amounted to EGP 1.94trn, including about EGP 860.842bn for 364-day maturity, about EGP 138.748bn for 273 days, EGP 474.867bn for 182 days, and EGP 466.336bn for 91 days.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the maturity of those T-bills extends from 7 February 2023 to 30 January 2024, taking into account that other bills with the same deadlines are issued on a weekly basis.
This comes as the Ministry of Finance revealed that the volume of outstanding balances of treasury bonds in February reached approximately EGP 2.50trn, of which about EGP 260.135bn are in zero-coupon bonds, and about EGP 13.384bn in variable-yield bonds that the Ministry of Finance recently launched.
According to the Ministry, the maturity date for these bonds extends from March 17, 2023 to January 18, 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 earlier showed that the government has a plan 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 budget deficit.
According to the government’s plan, the Ministry of Finance aims to issue 52 bond bids worth EGP 1.014trn and 30 bond bids worth EGP 41.25bn in the period from the first of last January to the end of this 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.
According to the Ministry, there are bonds denominated in US dollars amounting to about $32.960bn, 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, and the interest rate on them ranges between 3.875% and 8.875%. It averages 7.126%.
These balances also include sukuk worth $1.5bn that were issued on 28 February 2023, and due on 28 February 2026, with a return of 10.875%.
According to the Ministry of Finance, there are other bonds worth €4bn, which were offered from April 16, 2018 to April 11, 2019, and are due during the period from 11 April 2025 to 11 April 2031, and the return rate on them 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 yen, equivalent to $0.5bn. They were offered on 31 March 2022, due on 31 March 2027, and the return rate is 0.85%.
