Encouraged by the success of Egypt’s launch of the $4bn three-tranche bond issue at the end of January, Finance Minister ‘Amr al-Garhy says the monetary authorities are currently studying the possibility of issuing Chinese renminbi-denominated “Panda bonds” and Japanese yen-denominated “Samurai bonds,” without specifying how much his country will seek to borrow.
Mr Garhy says the proceeds of January’s bond issue, which was more than three times oversubscribed, has helped his ministry to plug the budget gap for both the current 2016-17 fiscal year (ending June 2017) and part of the anticipated 2017-18 deficit. The IMF puts Egypt’s budget ‘hole’ at $35bn for the next three years (MEES, 27 January). Egypt has been seeking to cover this gap from a variety of sources, including grants, loans, other forms of aid and bond issues. (CONTINUED - 374 WORDS)
