The Ministry of Finance revealed that Egypt's outstanding treasury bills and bonds valued at about EGP 3.96trn in June 2022. According to a report released by the ministry on its website on Tuesday, the outstanding treasury bills amounted to about EGP 1.518trn in June, comprising EGP 844.599bn in 364-day bills, EGP 307.113bn in 273-day bills, EGP 122.625bn in 182-day bills, and EGP 244.320bn in 91-day bills. These treasury bills will be due from 5 July 2022 to 28 July 2023, taking into account that other bills with the same deadlines are issued on a weekly basis. Moreover, the outstanding bonds reached about EGP 2.441trn in June 2022, of which about EGP 217.026bn was in "Zero Coupon" bonds. According to the Finance Ministry, these bonds will mature from 21 July 2022 to 18 January 2037, taking into account that other bond issuances are made on a weekly basis, just like the T-bills. Figures obtained by Daily News Egypt earlier revealed the government's intention to borrow EGP 818bn from the local market during the first quarter of fiscal year 2022/23, with the aim of financing the state's budget deficit. The government's plan included 52 issuances of T-bills worth EGP 686.5bn and 39 bond issuances worth EGP 131.5bn from 1 July to 30 September 2022. In the same context, the Ministry of Finance revealed the size of the outstanding foreign bonds in the first half of 2022. According to the ministry, there are US dollar-denominated bonds worth about $34.21bn which were offered from 11 June 2015 to 30 September 2021, and will mature from 21 February 2023 to 16 February 2061. The interest rate on these bonds ranges between 3.875% and 8.875% and averages 7.126%. The Finance Ministry indicated that there are also euro-denominated bonds worth €4bn, which were offered from 16 April 2018 to 11 April 2019, and will mature from 11 April 2025 to 11 April 2031. The interest rate on these bonds ranges between 4.75% and 6.375% and averages 5.477%. In addition, there are Japanese yen bonds worth about ¥60bn equivalent to $500m that were offered on 31 March 2022 and will mature on 31 March 2027, and the return rate is 0.85%. Maait indicated that the government is looking forward to issuing Chinese yuan bonds "panda bonds" at a value equivalent to $500m. Maait added, on the sidelines of a press conference on Monday, that sovereign sukuk worth between $1.5bn and $2bn are also scheduled to be issued, but the international markets are currently not suitable in terms of liquidity and cost. Maait said that the debt-to-GDP ratio decreased from 103% in June 2017 to 87.2% in June 2022, compared to a global government debt ratio of 99% of global GDP, and the debt ratio also decreased by 15.6% of GDP from 2016 to 2022 , compared to an increase of 19.5% in emerging countries. Maait confirmed that the government aims to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to 75% by 2026, pointing out that 77% of government debt is domestic to institutions and individuals in Egypt, and only 23% is external in hard currency, and that the external debt of budgetary organs stabilized at $81.4bn in June 2022 by 19.2% of GDP, compared to $81.3bn in June 2021, bearing in mind that this long-term debt has an average of 12 years and a cost of less than 6%.
