Deposits increase by L.E. 7.2 billion, foreign debts by $ 1 billion

A report recently released by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said that deposits at the local banks increased by L.E. 7.2 billion in last July, raising the total figure to L.E. 409.666 billion.

The report added that the volume of liquidity went up to L.E. 390.67 billion last July compared to L.E. 384.26 billion in June with an increase of L.E. 4.6 billion.

As to the international reserves, the report said that they scored $ 14.565 billion last July against $ 14.809 billion in June with a drop of $ 244 million.

The report also pointed out that the volume of credit increased by L.E. 500 million, scoring a total of L.E. 285.2 billion against L.E. 274.7 billion. The private sector took the lion share or 73.6 % of the total credits given to non- governmental businesses.

On the balance of payments, the report said it achieved a surplus worth $ 1.9 billion during the fiscal year 2002/2003 against $ 614.2 million in the previous year. This improvement is attributed to a continuous improvement of the trade balance by 12 % as a result of a rise in exports by 15.2 % and a drop in imports by 1.3 %.

The report said that the total domestic debt hits L.E. 252.2 billion until last June with an increase of L.E. 31 billion. The economic authorities' debts reached L.E. 39.2 billion with a drop of L.E. 1.9 billion.

Egypt's outstanding external debt reached $ 19.1 billions by the end of September 2003 against $ 28.3 billions at 2002, said the report.