Egypt will repay $1.8 billion owed to Qatar and the Paris Club nations next July, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt Tarek Amer said. The central bank will repay $800 million to the Paris Club and the remaining $1 billion it owes to Qatar, Amer said in a televised interview on Saturday evening. Oil-rich Qatar, a supporter of Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt following the ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, gave Egypt billions of dollars in deposits, grants, and energy supplies during Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's year in power. The scheduled payments will be made on time regardless of the strain on Egypt's foreign currency resources, Amer assured. Egypt's foreign currency reserves have dwindled to $16.5 billion, down from $36 billion on the eve of the revolution, as the country's main sources of hard currency income have been hit by domestic political turmoil, security concerns, and the slowdown in the global economy. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/197971.aspx
