Egyptian external debt ups to $82.9 bln at end-2017: CBE

Egypt’s external debt recorded $82.9 billion at the end of 2017 up from $80.8 billion in the third quarter of the year, which ended in September 2017, the Central Bank (CBE) said in a statement on Wednesday.

Debt owed to foreign institutions rose by 10 percent to $26 billion by end of the 2017, compared to $23.4 billion in September. External debt per capita rose by 2.5 percent to $790.8, up from $771.2 in September.

Paris Club debt rose to $4.1 billion in December 2017, up from $3.8 billion in September, the CBE said.

External debt mainly consists of medium-term and long-term debt, which rose by 4.4 percent to $71.8 billion at the end of 2017, compared to $68.8 billion September.

It is worth noting that medium-term and long-term debt represented 86.6 percent of external debt at the end of 2017, up from 85.1 percent in September.

As for short-term debt, it decreased to $11.1 billion, down from $12.1 billion in September 2017.

Short-term debt represented 30.1 percent of net international reserves by year-end, compared to 33 percent at the end of September.

The CBE had repaid external debt worth $6.4 billion by the end of 2017, compared to $1.2 billion at the end of September.

Egypt’s foreign reserves climbed to $44 billion at the end of April, up from $42.6 billion at the end of March.

Source: Ahram Online