Debt interest in Egypt's draft budget for the new fiscal year (2024-2025) jumped from one trillion and 120 billion and 86 million pounds to one trillion and 834 billion and 468 million pounds, an increase of 714 billion and 382 million pounds, and an increase of 63.77 percent, against the backdrop of the government's expansion in borrowing from abroad, and the decline in the exchange rate of the local currency from an average of 30.95 to 48.20 pounds to the dollar.
According to the financial statement of the new budget, interest payments represented 47.4 percent of total budget expenditures, compared to 37.4 percent in the budget for the current fiscal year (2023-2024), linked to high inflation rates driven by the increase in the prices of basic commodities and food, the increase in interest rates, the cost of borrowing, and the change in the exchange rate on the value of interest paid on loans in foreign currency.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
