Cairo – Mubasher: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBK) on Thursday will issue treasury bills (T-bills) worth EGP 20.5 billion, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance (MoF), according to recent data from the CBK.   

The first tranche of the issue amounts to EGP 10 billion and will be matured in 182 days, while the second one will total EGP 10.5 billion and will be matured in 364 days.

The Egyptian government borrows through treasury bills and bonds on different maturities where government banks are the top buyers.    

Moreover, the finance ministry is currently working to diversify its income sources between debt instruments in both local and foreign markets, it said, adding that it could tap into long-term financial instruments from the local market instead of short-term loans as local interest rates start to fall. 

In addition, it can issue more medium-term and long-term bonds instead of bills in order to increase the debt maturity and avoid risks associated with the refinancing of existing debt. 

It is noteworthy that Egypt managed to cut the debt to the gross domestic product (GDP) ratio to 90.5% by the end of June 2019 from 98% in the same month in 2018.