Egypt Watch

Banque Misr: The Egyptian governmental bank takes the greatest loan in its history

Banque Misr, the second largest governmental bank in Egypt, is preparing to acquire the biggest loan in its history, $700 million, in order to pay off a previous $550 million loan taken by the bank in December 2018.

The initial plan was to get a loan worth the bank’s debt, but it later raised the value. The creditor banks include Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, and Standard Chartered.

In July, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights issued its analysis of the Egyptian governmental budget for 2021/2022. The report pointed out that a huge part of the public budget goes to the debts’ payoff and dues, which deprives the citizens of investing their national income. The debts’ dues in the budget reached EGP 1.172 trillion out of the total spending, which reached EGP 2.461 trillion.

In September, EIPR issued another report on Egyptian foreign debt, which has been soaring over the past years. The report pointed out that Egyptian foreign debt doubled over the period of 2017-2020.