Cairo - Mubasher: The chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) said on Sunday that factoring was the activity with the biggest growth rate in 2016, going up by 32%.

Factoring deals totalled EGP 6 billion in 2016, compared to EGP 4.6 billion in the year before, EFSA chairman Sherif Samy said in an official statement.

Current finance balances in the seven licensed companies reached EGP 4 billion by the end of last December, rising by 85% compared to 2015, according to Samy.

Financial leasing activity grew by 11% in 2016, he added, noting that leasing contracts reached EGP 21.5 billion compared to EGP 19.4 billion in 2015, while the number of contracts declined from 2720 to 2325.

As for real estate financing it registered a 16% increase in 2016 to EGP 1.1 billion, compared to EGP 981 million in 2015.