Egypt's External Debt Jumps to $134.8 Billion

Egypt's external debt increased by 4.37% during the first quarter of 2021, reaching a level of $134.8 billion at the end of March, compared to $129.1 billion in December 2020, an increase of $5.64 billion.

On an annual basis, the rate of increase in Egypt's foreign debt amounted to 21.15%, reaching $123.5 billion in March 2020.

A marginal decline in the long-term external debt ratio

The data of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) indicated that the balances of long-term external debt increased by 3.7% during Q1 2021 to reach $ 121.58 billion at the end of March, compared to $ 117.2 billion in December 2020, with an annual growth of about 20.4% from $100.97 billion in March 2020.

The long-term external debt to the total indebtedness declined marginally to 90.16% at the end of the first quarter, compared to 90.74% at the end of December.

CBE stated that Egypt's total short-term foreign debt rose to $13.26 billion by the end of March 2021, compared to $11.96 billion last December, with a growth rate of 10.89%. It also increased on an annual basis by 28.5%, rising from the level of 10.316 billion in March 2020.

External debt owed by the government

The bank also stated that the government’s external debt rose during Q1 2021 by 4.25% to reach $80,491 billion by the end of March, compared to $77.205 billion in December 2020, while the increase on an annual basis amounted to 33.25%, with a value of more than $20 billion.

At the end of last March, the government's foreign debt was distributed between $78.49 billion in the long-term debt and $2 billion in short-term debt.

With regard to the debt balances on the Central Bank, the data indicated that it decreased by 7.29% on an annual basis to reach $25.755 billion at the end of March 2021, compared to $27.78 billion, year-on-year, with a total decline of $2.025 billion. It also achieved a slight decrease of 0.95% during the first quarter of this year.

The central bank's long-term debt records $22.89 billion

The long-term external debt of the Central Bank amounted to $22.895 billion by the end of March 2021, compared to $25.187 billion in the same month last year, and $23.18 billion in December 2020.

The bank's external debt in the short term (less than 12 months) also recorded a level of $2.859 billion in March, compared to $2.822 billion in December 2020, and about $2.59 billion during Q1 2020.

The foreign debt owed by local banks jumped at a rate of 66.7% on an annual basis, recording a level of $13.758 billion at the end of March, compared to $8.25 billion in the same month of last year, while it rose on a quarterly basis by about 13.08% from the $12.16 billion level recorded in December 2020.

The external debt owed by the rest of the sectors recorded a level of $14.835 billion at the end of March, compared to $13.82 billion in December 2020, with a growth rate of 18.9%.