Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s issuance of new global bonds will not add pressure to the country’s external debt, finance minister Amr El Garhy told local media.

Yields for 10-year bonds fell to 6% from 7.5%, while six-year bond yields declined to 5% from 6.5%, the top official said in a phone interview with DMC channel late Tuesday.

The government is planning to issue global bonds on an annual basis, the minister revealed, indicating that bond yields were linked to global debt prices and gross domestic product (GDP).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have lauded the Egyptian government’s efforts and economic reform scheme, the top official told the news channel, indicating that these efforts have attracted foreign investments to the country and to the government’s debt instruments.

On Tuesday, El Garhy revealed that Egypt was planning to launch $3 billion in dollar-denominated debt by early 2018, in addition to launching EUR 1 billion in euro-denominated bonds.

Egypt is currently working on establishing a global bonds programme worth a total value of $8 billion in collaboration with global bourses.

The programme will include around $3 billion to $4 billion in dollar-denominated bonds along with EUR 1.5 billion in euro-denominated bonds.

The most populous Arab country’s expansions in the global debt market have so far raised its global debt to $79 billion by the end of June 2017.