CAIRO: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on behalf of the Ministry of Finance is scheduled to auction 6 billion EGP ($766.18 million) in treasury bills Wednesday, according to the bank’s official website.
Egypt’s central bank usually holds T-bills auctions on Sunday and Thursday every week. Meanwhile, the bank had to change its schedule this week, cancelling Sunday’s auction on the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Thursday’s auction will be held a day earlier as banks will be officially off on the occasion of celebrating the anniversary of the July 23 Revolution.
“The T-bills are to be offered in two installments; the first valued at 2.5 billion EGP with 182-day term, and the second worth 3.5 billion EGP with a one-year term,” according to the CBE website.
Egypt’s government intends to borrow 262 billion EGP in T-bills and T-bonds during the first quarter of this fiscal year 2015/2016, according to Finance Ministry data.
The figure marks an increase of 45 billion EGP, from 217 billion EGP planned a year earlier.
The government seeks to borrow from the domestic market to cover the state budget deficit which breached above 10 percent of GDP since FY 2011/2012, and forecasted to exceed 11 percent of GDP in FY 2014/2015 (ended June 30.)
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ratified earlier in July the state budget for FY 2015/2016, after being revised to slash the projected deficit to 8.9 percent of GDP.