Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it is in talks with Egypt on currency swap, according to local reports.
Spokesman for the ministry Lu Kang said that central banks of Egypt and China have made some initial progress on the local currency swap without specifying the swap range.
Egypt’s deputy Finance Minister for the Treasury affairs Mohammad Meit said on Monday that his country will begin negotiations with China over the next week to get a loan worth $ 2 billion and it will launch international bonds in October or November.
It was unclear whether the talks on currency swap were linked to negotiations on the loan. China’s central bank did not immediately respond to a query about the matter.
The Egyptian government agreed last month to launch international bonds worth $ 3 billion to $ 5 billion dollars، and has chosen JP Morgan، Citibank، BNP Paribas، Natixis to manage the offering.
At the same time، Minister of International Cooperation، Sahar Nasr told official MENA news agency Monday that Egypt is negotiating with China for a loan of $ 4 billion. She added that the billion dollars of this amount will be used to support foreign exchange reserves.
Egypt reached a preliminary agreement with the IMF on borrowing $ 12 billion programme but must manage between five and $ 6 billion dollars through other bilateral funding to ensure the approval of the Board of Directors.
