The Central Bank of Egypt auctioned 7 billion EGP ($861.18 million) in treasury bills Thursday, Ministry of Finance (MOF) posted on its website.
The bills were offered in two installments, one worth 3 billion EGP with a six-month term and the second valued at 4 billion EGP with a one-year term.
Since the January 25 Revolution in 2011 that removed Hosni Mubarak, successive governments increased their borrowing from banks operating in Egypt to cover the budget deficit, as revenues from tourism and foreign direct investment were hit by local unrest.
President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi rejected an initial budget proposal with a 292 billion EGP deficit for the next fiscal year and the deficit.
Shortly after Sisi approved a revised and tightened budget with 10 percent deficit for FY 2014/15, or 240 billion EGP ($33.57 billion.) The Cabinet decided to raise prices of petroleum products; the hike ranged between 40 percent to 78 percent for petrol and 175 percent for natural gas, in a move towards a series of tough austerity measure to decrease the soaring deficit.
Earlier this month, the MOF said it intends to borrow 220 billion EGP ($30.7 billion) in treasury bills and bonds during the first Q of the current fiscal year, compared to 204.8 billion EGP in the previous Q that ended June 30.
