The government has the lion's share in this due debt with 87.8 percent, while 5.9 percent are due on the public economic authorities, and 6.3 percent on the National Investment Bank (NIB), reported the CBE.
In the past five years, Egypt’s GDP grew to reach EGP 5.9 trillion by the end of FY 2019/20 – up from EGP 3.4 trillion in FY 2016/17, said the finance ministry.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s external debt jumped to $125.3 billion in the first quarter (1Q) of FY 2020/21, growing by 1.5 percent on the end of June 2019, while debt services posted $4.9 billion, according to the CBE.
During 1Q of FY 2020/21, Egypt repaid 3.7 percent of its debt instalments with $1.2 billion in interests, said the CBE.
It also said that the external debt to GDP ratio declined to 33.9 percent in the same quarter, which is in the safe zone according to international criteria.
Furthermore, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to Egypt declined by 31.8 percent in 1Q of FY 2020/21 to register $1.6 billion, down from $2.4 billion in the same quarter of FY 2019/20, driven by the decrease of investment flows in oil and non-oil sectors, according to the CBE.
The central bank said that the 1Q of FY 2020/21 witnessed a contraction in commodity exports to reach $21.1 billion, down from $23 billion in 1Q of FY 2019/20.
The CBE noted that the European Union (EU) is Egypt's top partner in external trade, representing 30.3 percent of the total external trade, followed by Arab countries with 21.4 percent and non-Arab Asian countries with 20.5 percent.
Egypt’s exports contracted by 11.8 percent in FY 2020/21 to reach $6.3 billion owing to the decline in oil exports by $838.2 million and the decrease in fuel and mineral oil product exports by $850.8 million, the CBE added.
The current account deficit was doubled in 1Q of FY 2020/21 to reach $2.8 billion, driven by the contraction in the service balance surplus and the increase in non-oil trade balance deficit.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s GDP (in fixed prices) grew by 0.7 percent to post EGP 982.6 billion during the first quarter (1Q) of the current FY 2020/2021 – which ends in June – up from EGP 976.1 billion during the same quarter of FY 2019/2020, according to the CBE.
Moreover, Egypt’s GDP, in current prices, increased to EGP 1.6 trillion, in 1Q of FY 2020/21, up from EGP 1.5 trillion in 1Q of FY 2019/20, stated the CBE.
The bank added that the wholesale and retail trade, agriculture, telecom, and real estate sectors drove the growth the GPD witnessed in the quarter.
During the quarter, executed investments witnessed a decline by 38.2 percent compared to the 1Q of FY 2019/20 to reach EGP 152 billion, according to the CBE.
Three quarters of the investments were made by the public sector and the remaining quarter by the private sector.