In two weeks, the Egyptian government will offer bonds worth US$2.5 billion, Bloomberg News Network reported on Monday. In the next three years, it expects to receive revenue of $10 billion from land sales to Egyptians living abroad, according to the report. The land sales represent in an attempt to compensate for high interest on domestic borrowing, a decline in foreign reserves and difficulties in borrowing from international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The network also said local bonds will provide interest of up to 15.9 percent.
However, Sami Khalaf, advisor to the finance minister for public debt management, denied the Bloomberg report, explaining that the issuance of bonds in US dollars requires approval from international financial institutions. “This is difficult at the moment,” he said, adding that the government is only offering treasury bills worth $500 million for Egyptians.
Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s has lowered Egypt’s credit rating for the fifth time in one month against the backdrop of the continuing decline in foreign reserves, which have dropped to $16.4 billion, bringing the reserves to their lowest level in seven years.
According to Finance Minister Momtaz al-Saeed, the government needs $11 billion, while Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Fayza Abouelnaga said Egypt is borrowing $1 billion from the World Bank and the African Development Bank, at the same time that it is negotiating a loan of $3.2 billion from the IMF.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
