The investments of banks working in the local market in government's treasury bills (T-bills) increased to EGP 735.592bn, compared to EGP 725.924bn by end of December 2018, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). In its monthly reports on the performance of banks, the CBE explained that the investments of the sector's banks in T-bills reached EGP 388.45bn by end of January, compared to EGP 369.081bn by end of December, with an EGP 19.4bn increase. During the same period, the investments of banks specialised in T-bills increased to EGP 16.205bn, compared to EGP 15.613bn. The investments of the branches of foreign banks increased to EGP 36.695bn, compared to EGP 36.368bn. On the other hand, investments of the private sector banks in T-bills declined by EGP 10.44bn in January 2019, reaching EGP 294.242bn, compared to EGP 304.682bn by the end of December 2018. The CBE had revealed an increase in the volume of outstanding balances of government T-Bills to EGP 1.371tn by end of January 2019, compared to EGP 1.301tn by end of December 2018, with an EGP 70bn increase. In a related context, the CBE revealed that banks have supported their securities portfolio, including investments in shares and bonds, as well as investment fund documents, by EGP 202.23bn in 2018. The CBE explained that the securities portfolio recorded EGP 1.901tn by the end of December 2018, compared to EGP 1.698tn by end of December 2017, which is an 11.9% growth. Furthermore, the CBE pointed out that the securities portfolio in banks increased by EGP 107.5bn in December, reaching EGP 1.901tn, compared to EGP 1.794tn by the end of November. According to the CBE, the volume of the securities portfolio in local currency in banks reached EGP 1.489tn by the end of December 2018, compared to EGP 1.254tn by the end of December with EGP 235.4tn. On the other hand, the securities portfolio in banks in foreign currency declined by EGP 32.2bn, reaching EGP 412.162bn by the end of December 2018, compared to EGP 444.315bn by the end of December 2017. The total investments of the government sector in securities reached EGP 1.808tn by the end of 2018, while the investments of the private enterprise sector reached EGP 77.436bn, and external investments reached EGP 14.978bn, while the investments of the public enterprise sector reached EGP 538m.
