CAIRO — On the sidelines of the Euromoney Egypt Conference on Sept. 4, Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait announced his ministry's intention to submit a proposal to the Cabinet to establish a foreign debt ceiling. Maait said that he would be submitting a plan in the coming weeks to manage Egypt's foreign debt, which, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), stood at $88.2 billion in March. That was up from $82.9 billion in December 2017 and $79 billion in June 2017. Maait also said that domestic debt had totaled $194.9 billion in March.

Medhat al-Sherif, a member of parliament’s Economic Committee, told Al-Monitor that the country's serious levels of debt had in mid-September prompted his committee to announce several steps aimed at managing the foreign component. Although parliament's most recent session officially ended in July, Sherif's committee continues to follow up on issues discussed during the session and has asked Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly for a statement detailing all loans and grants received by the government.

As for parliament's public debt management plan, Sherif said his committee is proposing the formation of a subcommittee tasked with managing loans and debt through feasibility studies and optimization mechanisms. The subcommittee members, Sherif said, would consist of the ministers of finance, international cooperation, follow-up and administrative reform, planning and foreign affairs along with the governor of the CBE. The prime minister would head the committee and be tasked with developing loan feasibility studies.

According to Sherif, the Economic Committee found that the loan feasibility studies prepared by the state institutions receiving loans have only provided superficial information, and the loan recipients have failed to optimize the funds. He said the problems with debt management will have repercussions for generations to come if not addressed.