Central Bank of Egypt will offer EGP 5 billion Egyptian pounds ($828 million) of treasury bills after two parliamentary committees approved an economic plan as a precursor to securing foreign aid. The North African country will seek bids for six- and 12- month notes valued at 2 billion pounds and 3 billion pounds, respectively. It sold similar-maturity notes at 14.856 percent and 15.729 percent at last week's auction. The two committees gave their support to the state plan that is part of its request for a $3.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, Ashraf Badreldin, a lawmaker with Egypt's biggest parliamentary bloc, the Freedom and Justice Party, said this week. The IMF said it would stay in contact with Egyptian authorities in “the coming weeks as they finalize the remaining details of their economic program." Yields on Egyptian domestic debt have receded from record highs after the central bank reduced the local-currency reserve requirement for local banks last month, making more cash available to invest in government debt. The finance ministry sold 4 billion pounds of nine-month securities yesterday at an average yield of 15.529 percent, down from 15.622 percent at the previous auction. It was seeking to raise 3 billion pounds. The yield on the country's 5.75 percent dollar bonds due in 2020 fell less than one basis points, or 0.01 percentage point, to 7.1 percent at 9:08 a.m. in Cairo. The rate jumped 29 basis points yesterday, the most since Dec. 13, Bloomberg reported.
