The Ministry of Finance revealed that the volume of outstanding balances of local treasury bills and bonds amounted to about EGP 4.3trn in April 2023. According to the latest report published by the ministry on its website, the volume of outstanding balances of treasury bills amounted to about EGP 1.866trn with about EGP 957.354bn for 364-day bills, about EGP 213.453bn for 273-day bills, and about EGP 413.617bn for 182-day bills, in addition to about EGP 282.513bn for 91 days. According to the Ministry of Finance, the maturity date for these bills extends from 2 May 2023 to 27 April 2024, taking into account that other bills with the same deadlines are re-issued on a weekly basis. This comes as the Ministry of Finance revealed that the volume of outstanding balances of treasury bonds at the end of March reached approximately EGP 2.433trn, of which about EGP 230.569bn are "zero coupon" bonds, and about EGP 14.64bn in variable-yield bonds that the Ministry of Finance has recently launched. According to the Ministry, the maturity date for these bonds extends from 5 May 2023 to 18 January 2037, also taking into account that other bonds are re-bid on a weekly, periodic basis, just like the bills. The banks operating in the Egyptian market are the largest sectors investing in bonds and treasury bills that the government offers periodically to cover the state budget deficit. Figures obtained by "Daily News Egypt" earlier revealed the government's plan to borrow EGP 1.06275trn from the local market during the last quarter of the fiscal year 2022/2023, with the aim of financing the state's general budget deficit. According to the government's plan, the Ministry of Finance aims to issue 52 bond bids worth EGP 1.0335trn and 18 bond bids worth EGP 29.25bn in the period from 1 April to 30 June 2023, which reflects the government's need for liquidity in the short term. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), which undertakes this task on behalf of the government, will offer bids in April for bills and treasury bonds worth EGP 326.75bn, bids worth EGP 409.25bn in May, and bids worth EGP 326.75bn in June. These bonds and bills are offered through 15 banks that participate in the system of "primary dealers" in the "primary market", and those banks resell part of them in the "secondary market", to individual and local and foreign institutional investors. In the same context, the Ministry of Finance revealed the size of the outstanding balances of Egypt's foreign bonds in April 2023. According to the ministry, there are bonds in US dollars amounting to about $32.960bn, which were offered from 11 June 2015 to 30 September 2021, and are due during the period from 21 February 2023 to 16 February 2061, and the interest rate on them ranges between 3.875% and 8.875. % with an average of 7.126%. These balances also include sukuk worth $1.5bn that were issued on 28 February 2023, and due on 28 February 2026, with a return of 10.875%. According to Finance, there are other bonds worth €4bn, which were offered from 16 April 2018 to 11 April 2019, and are due during the period from 11 April 2025 to 11 April 2031, and the return rate on them ranges between 4.75% and 6.375%, with an average of 5.477 %. In addition to that, there are other bonds in Japanese yen, amounting to about 60 billion yen, equivalent to $500m. They were offered on 31 March 2022, due on 31 March 2027, and the return rate is 0.85%.
