Egypt eyes reducing debt-to-GDP ratio to 75% by 2026

Newspaper Title: https://www.zawya.com/

Newspaper Number:

Wednesday - 31 August 2022

The Egyptian government is targeting cutting the debt-to-GDP ratio to 75% by 2026, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait stated in a press conference on August 29th.

Egypt’s debt-to-GDP ratio dropped to 87.2% in June 2022 from 103% in June 2017, Maait said, comparing the ratio to the global government debt ratio of 99% of global GDP.

Moreover, he added that the country’s debt ratio fell by around 15.6% to GDP during the period from 2016 to 2022, compared to an increase of 19.5% in the emerging countries.

He also highlighted that debts of local institutions and individuals in Egypt accounted for 77% of the government's total debt, while only 23% of the debts are external in hard currency.

Furthermore, Maait said that the external debt of budget bodies stabilized at $81.4 billion in June 2022, at a rate of 19.6% of GDP, compared to $81.3 billion in June 2021, noting that it is a long-term debt with an average of 12 years and a cost of less than 6%.

Additionally, Maait said that revenues of the state's general budget increased by 19.6%, compared to an annual growth rate for expenditures of 14.8%, while tax revenues rose by 18.7%