El-Garhy: An average of $3bn bonds to be issued in mid-January
and a second batch of bonds to be issued in the second half of 2017
By Yasmine Fouda
Amr El-Garhy, the Egyptian finance minister, declared that Egypt will issue $2.5 to 3.0 bn bonds in the global bond market in the first half of January”.
El-Garhy added that an equivelant batch of bonds will be issued in the second half of 2017.
El-Garhy attributed the delay of bond issuance, which was originally planned for the second half of November, to the instability in global capital markets due to the US presidential elections.
El-Garhy, added in his speech delivered at the third edition of CEO’s thoughts in which 600 investors participated,” The government’s biggest challenge is to implement reforms on the ground. The government is not the only body responsible for reforms but also the Egyptian Banking System and the private sector are responsible. The main goal of these reforms is to make a leap in real economic performance in order to increase growth rates and reduce unemployment and inflation rates.
In reference to incentives approved by the Supreme Council for Investment, El-Garhy asserted that the economic group carefully considers the best mechanisms to implement these decisions. He predicted that the draft law of investment and other facilities that are currently considered by the government to reform the business climate will be completed in weeks.
In reference to his expectations that tax revenues will be increased after passage of the Law on Value Added Tax, El-Garhy said that the VAT will produce an increase of 0.6 – 6.5% of tax revenues during this year, as the tax was applied last September, though, there will be a transition period to putting things in order. El-Garhy expected that this percentage will increase to 1% after full implementation in the next year. El-Garhy added “The tourism industry is currently making good steps towards improvement, hoping that it will fully recover over the upcoming period”.
