Cairo – Mubasher: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will offer treasury bills (T-bills) worth EGP 17.5 billion on Thursday on behalf of the Ministry of Finance.

The first tranche of the T-bills will be offered through 182-day notes worth EGP 10.5 billion, while the second tranche is worth EGP 7 billion and will be offered through 357-day notes, the CBE said on its official website.

The issuance will be used to finance the country’s budget deficit. State-run banks are the top purchasers of the government debt instruments.

In April, the CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to leave interest rates unchanged for the third time in a row in 2021.

In November 2020, the MPC reduced the overnight deposit rate, the overnight lending rate, and the rate of the main operation by 0.5% to 8.25%, 9.25%, and 8.75%, respectively.

In June 2020, the Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, issued a decision to establish a unit at the Egyptian Tax Authority to follow up on the collection and supply of taxes on returns of T-bills and bonds.

In May 2020, Egypt secured a $2.7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the rapid financing instrument (RFI).