CAIRO: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on behalf of the Ministry of Finance auctioned 7 billion EGP ($million) in treasury bills Tuesday, according to the bank’s official website.
Egypt’s central bank usually holds T-bill auctions Sunday and Thursday every week, but held an exceptional auction on Tuesday as Egyptian banks will be off from Wednesday Sept.23-27 in observance of Muslims’ Eid al-Adha holiday.
“The T-bills are to be offered in two equal installments; each valued at 3.5 billion EGP, the first with a 6-month term, and the second with a 1-year term,” the bank said.
The government seeks to borrow from the domestic market to cover the state budget deficit which exceeds 10 percent of GDP since FY 2011/2012.
President Abdel Fatah 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.