Egypt’s domestic debt rose 20.25% y-o-y to EGP 4.1 tn at the end of December 2018 compared to EGP 3.4 tn in the previous year, according to central bank data (pdf). The country’s domestic debt-to-GDP ratio reached 78.2%, up from 77% a year earlier. Figures released last week showed that foreign debt rose 16.5% y-o-y to USD 96.6 bn in 2Q2018-2019, up from USD 82.9 bn in the same period a year earlier.

Background: The Finance Ministry rolled out earlier this year a “more realistic” version of its comprehensive debt strategy, in which it aims to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to 80-85% and the ratio of interest payments to 32% of GDP by FY2021-2022. The government would be allowed to issue USD 12 bn of USD-denominated eurobonds and another USD 10 bn-worth of bonds in other currencies through FY2021-2022. The strategy, which the ministry began implementing in March, “aims at issuing gradually larger volumes of longer-dated treasury bonds by means of constant issuance and re-openings to lengthen the average life of the debt stock, to consolidate the government securities yield curve, and to reduce refinancing risk.”