Egypt's foreign debt drops $7.4 billion in first quarter

CAIRO (Reuters) -Egypt's foreign debt fell by $7.4 billion in the first three months of 2024, according to central bank data released on Tuesday.

The country's finances were boosted in late February when it sold the development rights to prime Mediterranean land at Ras El-Hekma to the United Arab Emirates for $35 billion.

Total foreign debt declined to $160.6 billion by the end of March from $168.0 billion at the end of December and $164.5 billion at the end of September, the central bank data showed.

Egypt had quadrupled its external debt since 2015 to help finance a new capital, build infrastructure, buy weapons and support an overvalued currency.

In March it signed an $8 billion financial support package with the International Monetary Fund in which it committed itself to a free-floating currency. The IMF disbursed an initial $820 million in March, which the rest to be drawn in semi-annual instalments until September 2026.

The foreign debt, of which 84.2% is long term, was equivalent to 39.8% of gross domestic product, down from 43% in December, the central bank said.

(Writing by Patrick Werr; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)