National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the country's largest state bank, announced that its credit portfolio increased to 450 billion Egyptian pounds by the end of May 2018 compared to 410 pounds a year earlier according to Deputy chairman of the NBE Yehia Abou el-Fotouh. He told Amwal Al Ghad that the bank seeks to achieve growth rates in the credit porfolio between 15 percent and 20 percent within the financial year 2018/2019 through focusing on all sectors that serve the state including energy, gas and investment real estate, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and industrial sector sectors. He added the small and medium enterprises portfolio has exceeded 40 billion Egyptian pounds and pumped 22 billion pounds in the Central Bank of Egypt mortgage initiative with interest rate of 5 percent. The Bank has conducted cash collections and in-kind with clients worth one billion pounds since the beginning of this fiscal year and until the end of May, pointing out that the bank has recently made adjustments with a tourist agent in Hurghada worth 250 million pounds. on the other hand, the bank's irregular loans portfolio recorded 7.8 billion Egyptian pounds by the end of May 2018.
