The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will offer next Monday $800m dollar-denominated treasury bills due on 5 January 2021. The proceeds of this tender are directed to repay a previous tender, which was offered on 8 January 2019, at a value of $845.1m. The CBE's last T-Bill offering was on 9 December with a value of $1bn due on 8 December 2020. The CBE received 35 bids from local and foreign investors at a value of $1.1746bn, of which only 25 bids valued at $1bn were accepted. The interest rate accepted by the CBE was 3.55% as the lowest price, 3.6% as the highest price, and 3.589% as an average. During the year 2019, the CBE has made six T-Bill offers in US dollar, which gained about $6.1432bn. T-Bills are short-term debts issued by the government with maturity periods ranging from three to six months. They are usually issued by the state's finance ministry through the central bank to local and foreign institutions. The offering aims to increase the country's foreign exchange liquidity to meet the needs of the government, repaying its external debts, and maintaining its foreign reserves. The CBE allows subscribing to these bills for both local banks and foreign institutions, with a minimum subscription of $100,000 and its multiples. The return on these dollar bills is determined according to several indicators, the most important of which are the amount of dollar liquidity in the market, alternative investment opportunities available to local and foreign banks and financial institutions, and the country's credit rating.
