Egypt’s central bank's financial obligations climbed to 2.1 tln by end of April
Doaa A.Moneim, , Monday 17 May 2021
Despite the CBE's total assets growing by the end of April, gold and cash assets dropped compared to December's data


The Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE)’s total financial obligations, including loans obtained from local and international institutions, jumped to EGP 2.1 trillion by the end of April, up from EGP 1.8 trillion recorded by the end of December 2020, according to data published by the CBE on Monday.

These obligations include EGP 862.2 billion as due credit to the banks in the Egyptian pound, EGP 407.3 billion due credit to banks in a foreign currency, and EGP 19.2 due credits to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to the CBE.

Meanwhile, the data showed that the CBE’s total assets saw a growth by the end of April to reach EGP 2.09 trillion, up from EGP 1.9 trillion by the end of December.

The CBE’s gold assets declined by the end of April to EGP 68.7 billion, down from EGP 64.4 billion in the end of December 2020, according to the data.

The data also unveiled that the CBE’s cash assets fell to EGP 11.6 billion by the end of April, down from EGP 12.3 billion in the end of December 2020.

The IMF is expected to complete its final review of the one-year stand-by agreement programme (SBA) for Egypt in May, which paves the way for Egypt to get $1.6 billion as a third tranche of the $5.2 billion loan it obtained under the programme in June 2020.

The loan sum is used to finance Egypt’s second wave of economic reforms, with a special focus on structural reforms that Egypt launched in April.

Egypt is currently working with the IMF to draft a medium-term revenue strategy (MTRS) that aims to mobilise the country’s revenues, through which revenues would increase by 2 percent of GDP over four years, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait announce in April.

The strategy is expected to support Egypt’s budget targeted surpluses and to create room for priority spending on health, education, and social protection, according to Maait.

Egypt’s total external debt jumped to $125.3 billion by the end of the first quarter (Q1) of the current FY2020/2021, up by about $1.8 billion year-on-year, according to the CBE’s quarterly report on Egypt's external position published in April.

According to the report, long-term external debt surged to $113 billion (accounting for 90.2 percent of total external debt) by the end of Q1 of FY2020/21, up by about $0.4 billion compared to the end of June 2020.

Meanwhile, the report showed that short-term debt increased by about $1.4 billion to reach about $12.3 billion — 9.8 percent of total external debt.

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