Egypt pays more than $8bln from its debt – minister

Egypt is committed to the government’s rollout programme on time, said Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait on Monday at a meeting with CNBC, stressing that the state is pledged to repay its debt, as more than $8 billion have been paid.

The minister confirmed that his country has been in constant contact with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since March, the official announcement of the date of the IMF review will be soon.

Maait has predicted that the debt would fall to less than 91 percent of GDP starting with the new budget, stating that his country aims to reduce the rate of interest payments to less than 30 percent.

If the exchange rate had not changed, the debt ratio would have reached 78 percent of the GDP, adding Maait that the interest cost will have reached 1.112 trillion pounds in the next fiscal year, representing 37 percent of the state’s budget expenditure.

Egypt is one of the few countries which achieved growth rates of 3.6 percent during the coronavirus crisis, as the minister noting that the debt-to-domestic product ratio is supposed to be 78 percent.