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Egypt’s external debt rises by 41%

January 3, 2018 at 2:24 am

International Monetary Fund (IMF) [World Bank Photo Collection/Flickr]

Egypt is expected to pay off over $12 billion of its foreign debts in 2018, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced today.

The current external debt value amounts to third of its country’s total foreign reserves, which amounted to 36.723 billion dollars at the end of November.

According to MENA state news agency, the governement has already repaid around $30 billion of its financial commitments and foreign debts in 2017.

The repaid amount included bonds and foreign debts to international banks, including the African Export–Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) and deposits and loans from countries including Saudi Arabia, Libya and Turkey. It also included other financial obligations to various government bodies.

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Last June, Egypt’s external debt rose by 41.5 percent, reaching $79 billion on a year-on-year basis.

Egypt has been negotiating billions of dollars in aid from various lenders to help revive an economy battered by political upheaval since the 2011 revolt and to ease a dollar shortage that has crippled import activity and hampered recovery.

In November 2016, Egypt won a $12 billion IMF loan for a three-year bailout programme that aimed at reviving a struggling economy, bringing down public debt and controlling inflation while seeking to protect the poor.

During the current month, Egypt is due to receive the $2 billion fourth tranche of the $12 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, $1 billion from the World Bank, and $500 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB).