Egypt plans to raise its average debt maturity to 3.7 years from 1.3 years to ease pressure on the public treasury, the country’s finance minister said on Tuesday in a statement.
Mohamed Maait’s remarks were made during the opening session of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX).
“The ambitious program adopted and implemented by the EGX administration to develop the traded government treasury bonds in the stock market comes in line with the finance ministry’s efforts and action plans aimed at raising the average debt maturity,” Maait explained.
He expected the new indicators developed and launched by the EGX administration to contribute to raising the efficiency of the treasury bond pricing process and enhancing its circulation.
The Minister underlined the government’s interest in completing and activating the program to expand the ownership base of state-owned companies through the stock market, noting that the government will reveal new proposals before the end of the current fiscal year.
Maait, his deputy Ahmed Kojak, representatives of the securities industry parties, representatives of the Central Bank, and the settlement company co-owned by the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, as well as Chairman of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) Mohammed Farid, his deputy Ahmed al-Sheikh, and several stock exchange leaders took part in the opening session.
The session was held on the occasion of the official launch of four sub-indices to measure and track the performance of the listed Egyptian treasury bonds traded on the EGX according to different maturity periods.
The indicators include the most traded bonds, while the market value of the security determines the value of each issue within the index.
The index takes into account the return from the change in bond prices and that resulting from the eligible coupons, which determines the total return for the performance of the government bonds that make up the index.
A press statement by the EGX, a copy of which was received by Asharq Al-Awsat, said that this step completes the comprehensive vision adopted and implemented by the EGX administration to develop and raise the efficiency of the government bond market, enhance its liquidity, activate its trading and help create an active secondary market.
This would help the government, represented by the finance ministry, to access financing at a competitive cost, the statement explained.
