Egypt's foreign debt rises 20.7 pct to reach 67.3 bln USD

Egypt's foreign debt rose by 20.7 percent, marking an increase of about 11.6 billion U.S. dollars, to reach 67.3 billion by the end of December 2016, official MENA news agency reported on Sunday, citing the latest report from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

The country's total foreign debt stood at 55.8 billion at the end of June 2016 and 46.1 billion in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2015/2016. Egypt's fiscal year is from early July to end of June.

"The CBE referred the rise to the increase of the net use of loans and facilities of about 13 billion dollars," the report said, noting that the depreciation of some borrowed currencies against the U.S. dollar accounted for 1.4 billion of the foreign debt rise.

The report stated that Egypt's total domestic debt rose to 3.05 trillion Egyptian pounds (about 166.5 billion dollars) as of end of December 2016, of which 85.1 percent is owed by the government, 7.1 percent by economic authorities and 7.8 percent by the National Investment Bank.

Suffering economic slowdown over the past few years of political turmoil and relevant security challenges, Egypt started a three-year strict economic reform program including austerity measures, energy subsidy cuts and local currency floatation that all led to nationwide price hikes.

The country's reform program is encouraged by a 12 billion dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, whose first batch of 2.75 billion has been handed to Egypt in November 2016. Endit