Some data released from Egypt’s Central Bank on Tuesday said that the country’s foreign debt fell by $7.4 billion in the first three months of 2024.
The country’s finances were boosted in late February when it sold the development rights to prime Mediterranean land at Ras El-Hekma to the United Arab Emirates for $35 billion.
Total foreign debt declined to $160.6 billion by the end of March from $168.0 billion at the end of December and $164.5 billion at the end of September, the central bank data showed.
Egypt has quadrupled its external debt since 2015 to help finance a new capital, build infrastructure, buy weapons and support an overvalued currency.
In March it signed an $8 billion financial support package with the International Monetary Fund in which it committed itself to a free-floating currency.
The IMF disbursed an initial $820 million in March, which the rest to be drawn in semi-annual instalments until September 2026.
The foreign debt, of which 84.2% is long term, was equivalent to 39.8% of gross domestic product, down from 43% in December, the central bank said.
