The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has recently agreed to postpone the Installments of two clients operating in tourism sector's debts to the bank , the most recent of which began at the start of the year and will be postponed through its end totaled EGP400million, Yehya Abou El-Fotouh, Head of the Non-Performing Loans Division at the bank said according to CBE's initiative for supporting tourism sector. In 2013, CBE launched initiative to support tourism sector, especially the credit facilities which granted to the clients for the purpose of financing stay hotels and tourism projects. CBE's Governor, Hisham Ramez decided to extend the period of work initiative so as to support the exported tourism sector that started on March13 2013 till December2014. Tourism Sector's revenues reached US$1.9billion within the first half of the current year, retreating with 66% in compared to the previous year. The bank's non-performing portfolio debt closed at EGP6billion at April-end due to the high rise of US$ dollar price, expecting to close at EGP5.7billion by the end of the ongoing year, Abou El-Fotouh explained. The bank's strategy aimed reducing the non-performing portfolio to EGP5.5billion but the high exchange rate will make it close at EGP5.7billion. The total portfolio in default in Egypt reached around EGP50billion at 2013-end.
