Egypt has signed hedging contracts with American banks J.P. Morgan and Citibank to protect against fluctuating oil prices, an anonymous government official told Al Borsa.
The parties have not yet agreed when the contracts will come into effect, despite having already signed the agreement, a separate government source told Reuters.
The Egyptian government calculated its budget for fiscal year (FY) 2018/19 based on an average crude price of $67 per barrel. However Brent prices have since jumped to $79 a barrel, putting government finances under pressure and threatening its ambitions to reduce the budget deficit to 4% by 2022.
The Ministry of Finance estimated in April that a $1 increase in oil prices would increase government expenditure by around EGP 4 billion, equivalent to 0.08% of GDP.
The county’s current budget deficit for FY 2018/19 is 8.4%, or around EGP 438.6 billion.
