The Egyptian banking sector's investments in treasury bills increased by EGP 3.5 billion or 1.1%, registering around EGP 326.9 billion at the end of October 2013, up from EGP 323.9 billion at the end of September 2013, according to the latest report released by the Central Bank of Egypt. The Egyptian Ministry of Finance has stated that the country's government auctioned debt instruments, amounting to EGP 406 billion over the last 6 months of 2013, compared to EGP 307 billion for the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, investments made by the private-sector banks in treasury bills reached around EGP 135.96 billion at October-end of 2013, compared to EGP 134.85 billion by the end of an earlier month. Additionally, the public-sector banks made investments worth EGP 171.8 billion at the end of last October, up from a month earlier of EGP 171.4 billion. The investments of the foreign banks in the t-bills surged to EGP 11.3 billion at October–end, versus EGP 9.5 billion at September-end. Furthermore, the investments made by the specialized banks in the t-bills slightly edged up to EGP 7.8 billion at October-end, opposed to EGP 7.7 billion at September-end. The CBE also stated that the outstanding balance of governmental treasury bills rose by EGP 2.9 billion or 0.6% to hit EGP 449.2 billion at October-end, compared to EGP 446.3 billion at September-end.
