Foreign debt to Paris Club dropped $200 million by December-end: CBE

CAIRO - 4 April 2017: Egypt's total debt to Paris Club dropped $200 million to about $3.4 billion at the end of December, down from $3.6 billion at the end of September, according to the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) quarterly report.

Paris Club is an informal group of financial officials from 19 of the world’s largest economies. The group provides financial services, including debt restructuring relief and cancellation, to indebted countries and their creditors.

In January, Cairo repaid a $670 million six-month premium on the foreign debt owed to the Paris Club. Another repayment at the same value will be due at the end of June.

Egypt's foreign debt jumped to $67 billion at the end of December, from $48 billion at the end of December 2015, marking an increase of $19 billion (40 percent), according to the CBE.

The total amount of Egypt’s external obligations has doubled since 2010 when they stood at $34.7 billion.

The harsh economic situation forced the Egyptian government to expand its direct borrowing from several countries and international financial institutions, in addition to issuing dollar denominated bonds in international debt markets, a step aimed to fill an increasing fiscal gap in the state budget.

Since November, Egypt has received $2.75 billion of a $12b loan from the IMF, $1billion from the World Bank, $500 million from the African Development Bank, $1bn from the United Arab Emirates and $2bn from Saudi Arabia.