Egypt’s government debt to GDP declined to 97.1% in the second quarter (Q2) of 2018, down from 100.3% during the same period of 2017, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) said in a report.
The country’s household debt to GDP also decreased to 7.1% in Q2 of 2018, compared to 7.7% in the same period of 2017, the report added.
The IIF said the non-financial corporate debt to GDP amounted to 27%, versus 30.9% in the same period. The financial sector debt remained unchanged at 5.5% of the GDP in Q2 of 2018, compared to the same period a year ago.
Late October, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said Egypt’s public debt reached EGP 3.695tn ($206.9bn) at the end of June 2018, equivalent to 83.3% of the GDP, growing by 17% year-over-year (y-o-y). According to the CBE, the government debt recorded 84.4%.
The CBE announced that Egypt’s foreign debt stood at $92.64bn at the end of June 2018, up by 17.2% y-o-y.
The finance ministry plans to trim Egypt’s public debt to 80% of the GDP by 2020, according to a statement by former Minister of Finance Amr Al-Garhy.
Concerning the global debt, the IIF`s report declared that it increased to $247.1tn in Q2, up from $230.4tn in Q1 of 2018. Also, the mature markets debt reached $176tn in Q2 of 2018, versus $168.8tn in Q2 of 2017.
The emerging markets debt increased by about $1tn, reaching $71tn in Q2 of 2018, compared to $61.6tn during the same period of the previous year. In that term, the IIF explained that China accounted for more than 80% of that increase.
“Developing economies also face record redemptions in the years to come with over $4tn of bonds and syndicated loans maturing by end-2020, with as much as a third of that denominated in foreign currencies,” the IIF added.
The report elaborated that nearly 75% of redemptions in Chile, Colombia, Egypt, and Nigeria coming due in that period are for dollar-denominated debt, noting that Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, and Turkey also face high dollar financing needs.
