Foreign investments in Egyptian government securities fell 44.7% in 7 months

Foreign investments in Egyptian government securities fell 44.7 percent over the past seven months due to ongoing currency crises in some emerging markets.

Investments stood at 210.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($11.7 billion) at the end of October from 380.3 billion pounds at the end of March.

Appetite for emerging market debt has been already waning. But it went down even further following currency crises in Turkey and Argentina in August that in turn triggered an exodus of foreign investors from Egypt who must also be repaid.

Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait has said his country was looking to sell around $5 billion in Eurobonds, possibly in the first quarter of 2019. But later in October he announced a roadshow starting to promote bonds in Asia and Europe.

Egyptian government appears to have been waiting in the hope that emerging market turbulence would blow over.