In Q4 of 2023–2024, Egypt’s State debt decreases by 2.1%

Egypt’s total public debt fell by 2.1 percent in the final quarter of the 2023/2024 fiscal year, according to the Ministry of Finance. By the end of June, the debt had decreased to LE 12.52 trillion from LE 12.78 trillion recorded in March 2024. This reduction was primarily driven by a 2.7 percent decline in domestic debt, which dropped to LE 8.72 trillion from LE 8.96 trillion.
Data from the ministry indicates that short-term domestic debt decreased by 2.9 percent to LE 7.33 trillion, while medium-term debt saw a reduction of 2.5 percent, reaching LE 276.1 billion. Long-term domestic debt experienced a slight decline of 1.1 percent, settling at LE 1.11 trillion. Concurrently, Egypt’s external government debt also declined modestly by 0.8 percent, amounting to LE 3.79 trillion in the second quarter, down from LE 3.82 trillion in the first quarter.
Although this quarter-on-quarter decline is notable, Egypt’s total public debt remains elevated compared to June 2023, when it exceeded LE 10 trillion. However, as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), public debt has shown improvement, decreasing to 91 percent from around 96 percent in the previous fiscal year.
This positive trend is partly due to the “Ras El Hikma” deal, which generated $24 billion in inflows, with half allocated to the public treasury. The Ministry of Finance utilized the substantial primary surplus recorded during the fiscal year to further decrease the debt.
Egypt’s budget reported a primary surplus of 2.5 percent of GDP for the 2023/2024 fiscal year, which rose to 6.1 percent when including non-tax revenues from the “Ras El Hikma” deal. Moving forward, the Ministry of Finance aims to sustain these financial surpluses and lower public debt to below 80 percent of GDP by 2027. This goal is part of the government’s structural reform strategy, which focuses on state ownership policies and improving fiscal discipline by rationalizing subsidies.