Cairo – Mubasher: Foreigners’ holdings of Egyptian debt instruments reached $16.8 billion during the third week of April, deputy finance minister Ahmed Kouchouk stated on Tuesday.

In October, Kouchouk revealed that Egypt’s treasury bills held by foreign investors had declined to $14 billion at the end of September.

The Egyptian finance minister Mohamed Maait said that the government was aiming to reduce the inflation rate below 10% in fiscal year 2019/2020.

Maait added that the North African country had achieved a primary surplus of EGP 35.5 billion during the first nine months of fiscal year 2018/2019, accounting for 0.7% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).