Cairo, (Business News Report)|| Egypt’s Central Bank announced that the country has paid debts worth $24 billion, since the beginning of this year.
The debts were external and to foreign funds and international bonds due, it said.
The payment of this amount reflects Egypt’s commitment to pay all dues on time, Egypt’s Central Bank said.
Earlier this week, the Central Bank announced the payment of an outstanding external debt estimated at about two billion dollars during the month of May, including the entitlement of coupons for government bonds and dues in favor of the International Monetary Fund, in addition to other obligations.
Egypt paid $25.2 billion in debt interest and debt installments during the period from July 2020 to September 2021, including $19.93 billion in debt installments, and $5.35 billion in paid interests.
In a separate context, the World Bank raised its forecast for the growth of the Egyptian economy this year to 6.1%, compared to 5.9% in its previous forecast during the spring meetings last April.
In its June update of the World Economic Outlook, the bank expected that the Egyptian gross domestic product (GDP) would grow by 4.8% in 2023 and 5% in 2024.
The bank had raised its forecast last April by 0.3% to reach 5.6% in January.
The report indicated that the Egyptian economy witnessed stronger activity than expected during the first half of the fiscal year, which contributed to adjusting growth to 6.1% during the 2021/22 fiscal year.
The First Deputy Director-General of the International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopinath, had indicated last January that our expectations for the Egyptian economic performance have improved thanks to the good performance of the Egyptian government in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in light of the global outbreak of the Omicron mutator.
Gita Gopinath noted that Egypt is the only oil-importing country that has achieved positive growth thanks to the good management of the post-COVID-19 repercussions and the release of positive economic data.
In another context, negative economic figures were reflected on Egypt’s credit rating, and for the first time since 2013, it was threatened with a downgrade after Moody’s changed the outlook to negative instead of stable.
