Egypt’s Short-Term External Debt Share Eases to 17.6% While Total Reaches $166.7 Billion
Egypt’s short-term external debt fell for a third straight quarter to $29.3 billion at end-June, Central Bank of Egypt data show, while total external debt reached $166.7 billion.
For holders of Egypt’s debt, the mix improved even as the stock grew. Long-term obligations made up 82.4% of the total at end-June, up from 81.5% in March. In The Edge’s reading, the higher long-term share is the quarter’s constructive signal, while a 21.8% rise in trade credit owed by borrowers outside government and the banking system is the line to watch.
The figures come from the bank’s quarterly table of external debt by debtor sector, updated on 4 November 2026 on its Special Data Dissemination Standard page. They run to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025/2026, and the bank marks the end-June figures as provisional.
Short-term debt declines for a third straight quarter
Short-term external debt stood at $29.3 billion at end-June, against $30.5 billion at end-March. The 3.9% decline followed falls in the two previous quarters.
The series peaked at $34.8 billion at end-September 2025, the highest short-term level in the table, which starts in September 2017. Since then the stock has come down 15.6%.
As a share of the total, short-term debt eased to 17.6% from 18.5% in March. It had reached 21.2% at end-September 2025, and the end-June share is the smallest since June 2024, when it was 17.0%.
A year earlier, short-term debt was $30.9 billion, so the decline over the year was 5.1%.
Egypt’s external debt by quarter (in $ millions)
| Quarter end | Total | Short-term |
|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | 161,230.1 | 30,914.9 |
| September 2025 | 163,713.5 | 34,763.1 |
| December 2025 | 163,911.1 | 34,421.1 |
| March 2026 | 164,776.4 | 30,525.1 |
| June 2026 | 166,747.7 | 29,334.1 |
End of quarter, as published by the bank; June 2026 is provisional.
Central bank long-term deposits rise as short-term deposits fall
The largest moves by maturity were at the central bank itself, whose external debt rose by $1.08 billion to $36.9 billion.
Its long-term currency and deposits climbed to $20.4 billion from $16.4 billion in March. Short-term deposits fell to $7.46 billion from $10.07 billion, a decline of 25.9% in one quarter.
Over the year, long-term deposits nearly doubled from $10.65 billion, while short-term deposits more than halved from $15.48 billion. The bank’s table does not name the depositors.
Long-term debt now makes up 79.7% of the central bank’s external obligations, against 58.5% a year earlier. Its loans eased to $7.37 billion from $7.67 billion.
Special drawing rights were little changed at $1.63 billion. Taken together, the central bank’s deposit liabilities of both maturities rose $1.38 billion, or 5.2%, in the quarter.
Central bank external debt (in $ millions)
| Item | End-March 2026 | End-June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Long-term loans | 7,669.1 | 7,368.2 |
| Long-term deposits | 16,400.0 | 20,392.0 |
| Special drawing rights | 1,628.9 | 1,628.6 |
| Short-term deposits | 10,072.2 | 7,464.5 |
| Total | 35,770.2 | 36,853.3 |
Deposits are the bank’s “currency and deposits” lines; June 2026 is provisional.
Government and banks trim their external debt
Government external debt, all of it long-term, slipped to $82.71 billion from $82.84 billion in March. Its share of the total eased to 49.6% from 50.3%.
Within it, loans fell to $52.88 billion from $53.82 billion. Debt securities rose to $27.60 billion from $26.78 billion. Special drawing rights stood at $2.24 billion.
Against June 2025, government external debt was up $720 million, or 0.9%. The Ministry of Finance’s pledge covers the budget sector’s external debt, a measure this table does not show; its commitment to cut that debt by $1 billion to $2 billion a year was set out here on 4 November.
Banks’ external debt eased to $23.79 billion from $24.75 billion. The decline in short-term external debt accounted for $579 million of the $961 million decline.
Banks’ short-term loans rose to $9.66 billion from $9.44 billion. Short-term currency and deposits fell to $1.06 billion from $1.86 billion. Long-term debt eased to $13.07 billion.
Debt owed by other sectors, the bank’s term for borrowers outside government and the banking system, rose 9.2% to $23.39 billion. That increase of $1.98 billion was slightly larger than the $1.97 billion rise in the total.
Trade credit and advances, the sector’s single short-term line, accounted for more than the whole increase, rising 21.8% to $11.15 billion. A year earlier the line stood at $6.79 billion, so it has grown 64.3% over the year.
Trade credit is now the largest short-term item, at 38.0% of short-term debt against 30.0% in March. The sector’s long-term loans were steady at $12.24 billion.
External debt by borrower (in $ millions)
| Borrower | End-March 2026 | End-June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Government | 82,841.7 | 82,713.6 |
| Central bank | 35,770.2 | 36,853.3 |
| Banks | 24,750.3 | 23,789.5 |
| Other sectors | 21,414.2 | 23,391.3 |
| Total | 164,776.4 | 166,747.7 |
Sectors as the bank classifies them; the short-term debt of other sectors is trade credit and advances. June 2026 is provisional.
Long-term debt lifts the total to $166.7 billion
Total external debt rose 1.2% from $164.8 billion at end-March. The increase came entirely on the long-term side, where debt grew by $3.16 billion to $137.4 billion.
Over the year, the total was up 3.4% from $161.2 billion at end-June 2025. Long-term debt grew 5.4% over the same period, while short-term debt declined.
The end-June level is the second highest in the table, which runs from September 2017. Only end-December 2023 was higher, at $168.0 billion.
In June 2018 the total was $92.6 billion; the end-June 2026 level is 80% higher. The path was not one way: the total fell to $152.9 billion in June 2024 from $164.7 billion a year earlier, before rising again.
The short-term share has moved in steps. It ran between 8.8% and 13.3% at the June year ends from 2018 to 2021.
In the quarter to March 2022, short-term debt more than doubled to $26.4 billion. It has stayed above $25 billion in every quarter since. Its share reached 17.1% in June 2022 and 19.2% in June 2025, before easing this year.
External debt at the June fiscal year end (in $ millions)
| June | Total | Short-term |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 92,643.9 | 12,283.7 |
| 2019 | 108,699.1 | 11,055.4 |
| 2020 | 123,490.5 | 10,866.0 |
| 2021 | 137,859.6 | 13,716.0 |
| 2022 | 155,708.9 | 26,619.7 |
| 2023 | 164,727.6 | 28,150.6 |
| 2024 | 152,885.2 | 26,024.8 |
| 2025 | 161,230.1 | 30,914.9 |
| 2026 | 166,747.7 | 29,334.1 |
End of June, the close of Egypt’s fiscal year; 2026 is provisional.
What to watch:
The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet on 17 December 2026.
Figures are from the Central Bank of Egypt’s quarterly table of external debt by debtor sector, updated on its Special Data Dissemination Standard page on 4 November 2026, with the end-June 2026 figures marked provisional, from its Monetary Policy Committee meetings schedule and from the Ministry of Finance’s statement of 3 November 2026 on its $500 million reopening; percentages, shares and differences not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations.
Sources: Central Bank of Egypt, Ministry of Finance of Egypt, The Edge.
