Egypt: External Debt Continues Decline
Energy security continues to be a concern for the North African country's government. Meanwhile, great hopes are pinned on the opening of a nuclear power plant built by the Russians
Egypt’s foreign debt fell by 111 million dollars in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 155.09 billion dollars by the end of last year. According to a statement from the country’s Ministry of Finance, “Egypt is pursuing a strategy to limit the level of external borrowing and bond issuance in order to increase the maturity of its debt.” For his part, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly (pictured) said that these measures have succeeded in “bringing the level of external debt relative to GDP back to safe values, and the government would like to continue reducing the debt by $1.5-2 billion per year.”
Energy remains one of Cairo’s key expenditure items. While neighboring countries in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, are actively investing in green energy and solar and wind power plants, Egypt has high hopes for the commissioning of the El Dabaa nuclear power plant. The plant is being built by Russia’s state-owned Rosatom Corporation, the world’s leader in the number of nuclear power plants built.
As of April 6, the El Dabaa NPP project on the Mediterranean coast in northern Egypt was 21.4% complete. In a quarterly report presented to the Egyptian parliament, the Madbouly government emphasized that “the development of El Dabaa NPP is part of the government’s strategy to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy.” In addition, the report confirms an increase of about 200 megawatts in the capacity of solar power plants owned by the private sector. These measures are being taken as part of a plan to diversify sources of electricity generation and implement a sustainable development strategy.