Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy announced that Egypt will select the banks that will handle and manage the issuance of euro-denominated bonds within a period of two weeks, according to Reuters. El-Garhy said that Egypt expects issuing bonds between €1bn and €1.5bn in April, announcing that Egypt will start launching a promotional tour in several European countries that month. Last month, El-Garhy said that Egypt would start discussions with European banks to issue euro-denominated bonds. Earlier in January, the finance minister announced that the government planned to issue new international bonds worth between $4bn and $5bn. The government plan came after two earlier successful bond issuances in January 2017, where the ministry launched three packages of bonds through which it managed to attract $4bn. They were oversubscribed three times. On 10 November 2016, the ministry also launched bonds worth $4bn in a special listing on the London Stock Exchange. On a different note, the minister of finance pointed out that Egypt's external debt jumped to $80.8bn in September, an increase of 34.45%. Meanwhile, he pointed out to that the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at $42.524bn at the end of February, which he described as an unprecedented record. The Egyptian government is currently implementing reforms to revive the country's economy, including increasing energy and drug prices, liberalising the exchange rate, issuing new investment and civil service laws, making amendments to the Income Tax Law, and implementing a value added tax.
