Egypt Watch

Debt raises budget deficit to 3.8%

Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait has said that the budget deficit in the first half of
the current fiscal year rose to 3.8 per cent, compared to 3.6 in the first half of the last fiscal
year 2018/2019.
Maait attributed the high budget deficit rate to the payment of interest on future loans, in
addition to insurance dues.
He said that the total foreign investments in government debt instruments (bonds, notes,
instruments) amounted to $22 billion by the end of last December.
The Central Bank stated in a previous report that the burdens of external debt service rose to
about $13.4 billion during the fiscal year 2018/2019, compared to about $13.25 billion in the
previous year, and it distributed between about $10.2 billion in installments paid, and about
$3.2 billion in interest paid.
Egypt has borrowed heavily in recent years. The government signed an agreement with the
International Monetary Fund in 2016 in exchange for a $12 billion loan, which increased the
burden of debt interest.
According to recent data from the World Bank, Egypt’s external debt at the end of last
September was $109.363 billion.