The Ministry of Finance revealed that it aims to offer T-bill and bond issuances worth EGP 425.75bn in August, as part of a government plan aimed at borrowing EGP 1.106trn from the local market during the first quarter of the fiscal year 2023/2024, to pay previous dues for debt instruments, and finance the budget deficit. The Ministry of Finance's plan includes 20 T-bill issuances worth EGP 412bn and 10 bond issuances worth EGP 13.750bn. In detail, the plan includes 5 T-bill issuances worth EGP 113.5bn for a period of 91 days, and the same for a value of EGP 93.5bn for a period of 182 days, and 5 bids for a value of EGP 86.5bn for a period of 273 days, and the same for a period of 364 days at a value of EGP 118.5bn. The plan also includes issuing 3 bids for 3-year bonds worth EGP 11bn, including two bids for variable-yield bonds worth EGP 1.5bn, 3 bids for 5-year bonds worth EGP 750m, and two bids for 7-year bonds worth EGP 500m. 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. These bonds and bills are offered through 15 banks that participate in the "main dealers" system in the primary market, and those banks resell part of them in the secondary market to individual and local and foreign institutional investors. The Ministry of Finance had recently revealed that the volume of outstanding balances of local treasury bills and bonds amounted to about EGP 4.3trn by the end of 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 in 91-day bills. This comes as the Ministry of Finance revealed that the volume of outstanding balances of treasury bonds at the end of April amounted to about EGP 2.433trn, of which about EGP 230.569bn in "zero coupon" bonds, and about EGP 14.64bn in variable-yield bonds that the Ministry of Finance started offering recently.
