Egypt’s outstanding arrears to foreign firms edged down from just over $1bn at the end of 2018 to $900mn at the end of June, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters this week. In an April letter to the IMF, Finance Minister Muhammad Maait and central bank chief Tariq Amer said Egypt would fully eliminate receivables by end-June 2019 (MEES, 12 April).
It is not the first time Egypt has missed a self-imposed deadline, with former oil minister Sharif Ismail stating in 2014 that Cairo would completely pay off IOCs by the end of 2016. (CONTINUED - 111 WORDS)