Egypt’s foreign debt doubled over the first quarter of the current year with a USD 5.64 billion increase, estimated at 4.3% in comparison to the figure at the end of 2020.
The Central Bank of Egypt told that the foreign debt reached USD 134.8 billion with the end of March, compared to 111.29 a year ago, recording annual increase of 21%. Standard and Poor’s attributed the rise of foreign debt to the decline of foreign financial inflow. Long-term debts represented about 90% of the total foreign debt recording USD 121.2 billion, while the short-term debts hit USD 13.3 billion. According to CBE, tourism revenues in 2020 was USD 4 billion recording a 70% decline compared to the previous year. Randa Hamza, assistant of minister of international cooperation, revealed in last February that the public debt reached, in mid-2020, EGP 5.1 trillion according to the conclusive account of the 2019/2020 governmental budget.
Since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office, Egypt went on foreign loaning as the main financial source of the governmental spending. This attitude doubled the foreign debt 2 times from USD 46 billion in 2013 to USD 134.8 billion in 2021. The new governmental budget witnessed allocation of EGP 1.172 trillion to the debts’ dues, including EGP 579.6 billion for the interests. This consumes one third of the budget.
