Maait: Joining FTSE Would Inject $4 Bln of Investments in Egypt's Debt

Finance Minister Mohamed Maait expected an additional $4 billion to be injected in the government securities market after Egypt has joined the FTSE index for emerging markets government bonds.

Maait added on Wednesday that this move comes in line with the State's debt management strategy, which will help it reduce deficit and spending.

He pointed out that the country's joining the new index is a major step demonstrating the ministry's constant efforts to cut the cost of public debt as part of the State economic reform measures.

"It also falls within the framework of the government's mid-term debt reduction strategy, which seeks to stimulate the securities market for more cash-flow and encourage demand on government debt instruments, thus lowering their cost," Maait said.

"We are steadily moving forward toward boosting investor international financial institutions' confidence in the Egyptian economy."

The new series of the FTSE Frontier Emerging Markets Government Bond Index, which includes a market value weighted index and a 10% country capped index, measures the performance of thirteen fixed-rate, local currency government bond markets classified as a Frontier Emerging Market by FTSE Russell.

It also provides performance metric for high yielding and expanding part of global debt markets.