Egypt to cut fuel subsidies, increase net debt issuance in 2020/21 budget

CAIRO, 22 April 2020: Egypt plans to cut spending on fuel subsidies by 47% in its 2020/21 budget to 28.193 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.8 billion), an explanatory note for its draft budget published on Tuesday showed.

It allocates 52.963 billion pounds for fuel subsidies for the 2020/21 fiscal year, which begins on July 1.

In the most recent data available, the government cut its spending on fuel subsidies by about 69% to 7.25 billion pounds in the July-September 2019 quarter.

The government’s draft budget also shows it aims to increase its net debt issuance by 19.7% to 974.482 billion pounds.

Its plans include issuance of treasury bonds worth 700 billion pounds and treasury bills worth 274.482 billion pounds, the document said.