CBE: T-bills Hit its Highest, Soar To EGP15 Bln By March-End

The volume of investments in the Egypt’s government debt instruments “treasury bills” has hit a new record, jumping to its highest level to EGP 406.1 billion by the end of last March, moved up by 3.9% at 15.3 billion in one month, compared to EGP 390.8 billion by the end of last February.

This comes despite the fact that the Egyptian government has stressed the importance of foreign borrowing amid the grave levels of the domestic debt which surged to EGP 1.380 trillion by the end of the second quarter of the current fiscal year.

An increase of EGP 15.3 billion in one month is considered the highest ever as it represented 50% of the total growth of the first 9 months of the current fiscal year of EGP 32.6 billion. That’s why the government had formerly expected that the budget deficit is likely to exceed EGP 200 billion.

The investments of the banking sector in the T-bills have reached EGP 278.4 billion by the end of last March, representing 68.6% of the total investments, whereas the volume of the public-sector banks’ investments seizes 51.2% worth EGP 142.5 billion of the total investments.

Meanwhile, the private-sector banks’ investments have captured 42% (EGP 116.8) of the total volume of investments  of the banking sector in Egypt.

Foreign banks seized 5.3% worth EGP 14.8 billion of the total volume of investments; while the specialized banks captured the lowest rate of 1.5 % worth EGP 4.3 billion.