Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly revealed that the UAE transferred $14 billion as part of the agreement.
Egypt officially received the 2nd tranche of the Ras El Hekma deal from the UAE, according to a Wednesday cabinet statement. Local media reported on Tuesday that Egypt received the tranche earlier this week but was not announced.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly revealed that the UAE transferred $14 billion as part of the agreement.
The $35 billion deal, which sold the rights to develop the North Coast area of Ras El Hekma to the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund (ADQ), is considered one of the largest of its kind and injected much needed foreign currency to handle a growing FX shortage.
According to the cabinet statement, Egypt is working with the UAE to waive an Emirati deposit of $6 billion in the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and convert it to Egyptian pounds (EGP 280 billion).
In February, the CBE and UAE were reported to be coordinating to convert $11 billion worth of UAE deposits into EGP.
Yesterday, local media reported that Egypt is expected to allocate around $11 billion to pay off some of its external debt. The country’s foreign debt was recorded at $168 billion during H1 of FY2023/2024, climbing by $3.3 billion from $164.7 billion reported at the end of the previous fiscal year.
