The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) received on Tuesday a total of $4 billion in yields from Eurobonds issued on the global bonds market last week, state news agency MENA reported on Wednesday, citing the bank's governor.
The Eurobonds are divided between five-year and up to 130-year bonds, with interest rates between 6.12 and 8.5 percent, said CBE governor Tarek Amer.
In a press conference on Sunday, Egypt’s finance minister Amr El-Garhy described the bonds’ issuance as “unprecedented,” adding that their yields would eliminate the funding gap for the current fiscal year 2016/17 and provide for a large portion of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The newly-acquired $4 billion is expected to reflect positively on Egypt’s foreign reserves which stood at $24.4 billion at the end of December.
Egypt's foreign reserves registered $36 billion before a popular uprising toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in January 2011. Political turmoil during and after the uprising has undermined Egypt's vital sources of foreign currency, including tourism and foreign investment.
