51% of Egypt’s external debt owed to seven countries: CBE

37.3 percent of Egypt’s external debt comes from the Arab countries, mainly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE, a recent report by the Egyptian central bank showed.

Egypt’s external debt reached $47.8 billion by the end of December 2015, compared to $48.1 billion at end of June 2015.

As for the rest of the world, the report added that 6 percent of Egypt’s external debt was owed to Germany, 4.6 percent to Japan, 4.2 percent to the United States, and 3.1 percent to France.

The central bank further said that 27.0 percent was owed to international organisations, mainly 9.8 percent to the World Bank, 3.4 percent to the European Investment Bank (EIB), and 3.6 percent to the African Development Fund and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The report also showed that the U.S. dollar was the main borrowing currency, with a relative importance of 69.7 percent of Egypt’s total external debt. The euro came second with a 12.8 percent. The Special Drawing Rights, which a form of international money, created by the International Monetary Fund, and defined as a weighted average of various convertible currencies, seized 5.4 percent of Egypt’s total external debt. Kuwaiti dinar came fourth with a 5.0 percent share, followed by the Japanese yen, with a 4.8 percent.