C.bank says Egypt paid back $700 mln in debt to Paris Club

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) paid back around $700 million in debt to the Paris Club this week, the CBE announced Tuesday.

The CBE had made another payment to the Paris Club worth another $700 million in July 2017.

Paris Club is an informal group of official creditors who provide debt treatment to countries undertaking economic reforms.

Egypt met its obligations to Paris Club creditors in 2017, a CBE source told state news agency MENA last week.

In 2017, Egypt repaid around $30 billion in foreign debt and is set to pay back over $12 billion in 2018, MENA reported last week.

External debt stood at $79.03 billion at the end of the 2016/17 fiscal year, up from $55.76 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year, according to CBE data.

Egypt’s foreign currency reserves reached $36.723 billion in November, exceeding the record $36 billion on the eve of the 2011 revolution.

Egypt has been borrowing to plug its budget deficit, which decreased to 9.5 percent of GDP in the first nine months of 2016/2017, down from 11.5 percent the same period the previous year.

Source: Ahram online