The volume of credit facilities granted by banks operating in the local market to their customers at the end of July 2018 reached EGP 1.6316tn, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). ‘Credit facilities' refers to the sum of loans granted by banks to clients, along with letters of credit, and letters of guarantee, granted to cover imports. According to the CBE, total credit facilities directed to the government amounted to EGP 457.901bn at the end of July 2018, including EGP 224.439bn in local currency and EGP 233.462bn in foreign currencies. Non-government facilities recorded EGP 1.173tn, including EGP 851.7bn in local currency, and EGP 322.521tn in foreign currencies. The CBE noted that the private sector accounted for 61% of the total facilities granted by banks to non-governmental agencies, until the end of July 2018. About 34.5% of credit facilities were granted to the industrial sector, followed by the services sector, which took 29.1%, then trade with 10.4%. As usual, the agricultural sector received the lowest percentage of credit facilities granted by banks to different economic sectors, accounting for only 1.3% of total facilities, until the end of July 2018. The report noted that several other sectors, of which only the household sector was named, accounted for 24.7% of the total credit facilities.
