The Ministry of Finance aims to offer 27 treasury bill (T-bill) and bond issuances worth EGP 409.25bn in May 2023, comprising 20 T-bill issuances worth EGP 397.5bn and 7 bond issuances worth EGP 11.75bn.
Figures that Daily News Egypt obtained earlier showed that the government plans to borrow EGP 1.06275trn from the local market from April to June 2023, with the aim of financing the state budget deficit.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), which undertakes this task on behalf of the government, will offer in May 5 bids at a value of EGP 113.5bn for a period of 91 days, and the same for a value of EGP 81bn for a period of 182 days, and five other bids with a value of EGP 86.5bn for a period of 273 days, and the same amount for a period of 364 days with a value EGP 116.5bn.
It is also scheduled to issue three bids for three-year bonds at a value of EGP 9bn, including two bids for variable-yield bonds at a value of EGP 2bn, a bid for five-year bonds at a value of EGP 500m, and another for a seven-year term at a value of EGP 250m.
The banks operating in the Egyptian market are the largest to invest in bonds and treasury bills that the government offers periodically to cover the state budget deficit.
These bonds and bills are offered through 15 banks that participate in the primary dealers’ system in the “primary market”. Those banks resell part of them in the “secondary market”, to individual and local and foreign institutional investors.
The Ministry of Finance revealed earlier that the volume of outstanding balances of local treasury bills and bonds amounted to EGP 4.44trn in March 2023.
According to the latest report published by the ministry on its website, the volume of outstanding balances of treasury bills amounted to EGP 1.96tn, with about EGP 957.813bn for 364-day bills, about EGP 204.706bn for 273-day bills, and about EGP 429.442bn for 182-day bills, in addition to about EGP 369.892bn for 91 days.
The volume of outstanding balances of treasury bonds at the end of March reached approximately EGP 2.484trn, of which about EGP 239.625bn are in “zero coupon” bonds, and about EGP 14.635bn are variable-yield bonds that the Ministry of Finance recently launched.
