CAIRO – Moustafa Qotbi, economist at the financial policies unit at the Finance Ministry, said the ministry is doing utmost efforts to reduce public debt and diversify sources of funding through issuing samurai bonds in Japanese yen at a a value of 500 million dollars after issuing green bonds worth 750 million dollars in 2020.
This came in a statement by the media center of the cabinet on the 11th workshop organized by the Information and Decision Support Center as part of conducting a research project to draft expected scenarios to address the current global crisis.
As for internal debts, Qotbi said variable-rate bonds were issued to lure investors and ease burdens on the State budget.
Also, the ministry issued for the first time three-year-term sovereign sukuks at a value of 1.5 billion dollars to lower borrowing costs.
He said Egypt is not isolated from what is happening in the world which is now facing an unprecedented economic crisis after central banks’ tendency to raise interest rates to curb inflation, a move that caused an unprecedented hike in interest rates globally in a way that affected merging markets.
The ministry is taking serious steps to reformulate the debt strategy with the aim of extending debt life, diversifying financing procedures, and targeting new financial markets despite current challenges, he said.
He said Egypt seeks to extend the debt life to 3.4 years by the end of June 2023 compared to 1.8 years in June 2014 and to reduce the size of the debt relative to GDP to less than 80 percent by 2026.
The ministry also aims to increase budget revenues during the current year by 18%.
He also referred to ongoing reforms to achieve digital transformation in the tax and customs system, enacting a law for taxes on electronic commerce and approving the electronic bill system, saying these steps aimed at increasing public revenues in tandem with continuing spending on health and education projects as a constitutional obligation.
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