Egypt's external debt hits $106bn

Egypt’s external debt amounted to $106.2 billion in the third quarter of the financial year 2018-19, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced yesterday.

CBE explained that debt was broken down to “50.7 per cent government debt, 26.9 per cent ($28.5 billion) by the CBE, 12.9 per cent ($13.74 billion) by major sectors, and 9.5 per cent ($10 billion) by banks.”

“Egypt’s total long-term debt reached $93.8 billion at the end of last March, up from $86.2 billion in December 2018, a $7.5 billion increase in three months,” the bank pointed out, noting that the short-term debt had also risen by $12.3 billion in March, compared to $10.341 million in December.

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The public debt, CBE noted, had risen by $5.7 billion in the third quarter of 2018-19, reaching $53.8 billion, compared to $48 billion at the end of the second quarter of the last financial year.

CBE added that, on the contrary, Egypt had repaid about $25 billion of debts and interests over the past two years.

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