Subscribed Egyptian banks and foreign financial institutions will gain access to $600m as the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will issue on 17 June one-year treasury bills, with the auction set for 16 June, Reuters reported on Sunday. The weighted average yield was not announced. Economic expert Ahmed Adam commented that issuing t-bills, a form of government debt, will contribute to raising the country's foreign reserves over the long-term. According to Adam, the dollar-denominated t-bills, which were introduced by the CBE in November 2011, have reached $35.2bn in June 2012 and $46.9bn in June 2013. Treasury bonds are considered safe investments for banks because they are guaranteed by the government. In January, the CBE accepted bids for $1.070bn worth of one-year dollar-denominated treasury bills. The Ministry of Finance said in December 2013 that treasury bonds will comprise 30% of the government's holdings in the third quarter (Q3) of the 2013/2014 fiscal year compared to 20% in Q2 2013/2014. It said that the total value of the government securities, a form of debt, will reach EGP 203bn in Q3, a fall from its second quarter value of EGP 206.5bn. The timeframe for the releasing of treasury bonds with a less than one year maturity showed that July 2013 witnessed the highest rate of government borrowing in three years, after the government released EGP 81.5bn, according to the finance ministry.
