Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said that Egypt plans to issue dollar bonds in January and February. Euro bonds will then be issued.
“Dollar bonds will range from $3bn to $4bn, whereas the Euro bonds will range from €1bn to €1.5bn,” El-Garhy said in a press conference held on Tuesday.
“Foreigners’ investments in government debt instruments reached $18bn by the end of September since the flotation of the Egyptian pound in November,” he added.
In January 2017, Egypt sold international bonds worth $4bn on three portions. It then sold bonds worth $3bn in May 2017.
Ahmed Kojak, the deputy finance minister, said that a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be visiting Egypt in late October 2017 until the first week of November before disbursing the third portion worth $2bn of the loan worth $12bn, which Egypt agreed with IMF to obtain mid 2016.
In a different context, the minister revealed that the revenues of taxes have increased to EGP 464.4bn in 2016/2017 from EGP 352.3bn last year.
El-Garhy revealed that Egypt achieved revenues worth EGP 659.2bn in 2016/2017 from EGP 491.5bn in 2015/2016, whereas expenses increased to EGP 1.031tr from EGP 817.8bn in 2015/2016.
The government is implementing an economic reform programme that includes imposing a value added tax (VAT), flotation of the Egyptian pound, and reducing the subsidies of electricity and petroleum in an attempt to revive the economy and help it grow while reducing imports of non-basic goods.
