Egypt's external debt reaches $164.7 billion

The Central Bank of Egypt announced on Monday that total external debt reached $164.776 billion by the end of the third quarter of the 2025–2026 fiscal year, up from $163.911 billion at the end of the second quarter.

It added that long-term external debt stood at $134.251 billion, compared with $129.49 billion, while short-term external debt declined to $30.525 billion, down from $34.421 billion.

The bank clarified that external debt owed by the government amounted to $82.841 billion by the end of March 2026, compared with $81.846 billion at the end of December 2025. Balances of debt held by the Central Bank totaled $35.77 billion, down from $36.995 billion, while bank debt reached $24.75 billion, up from $23.004 billion.

Data from the Labor Force Survey for the second quarter of the year showed the unemployment rate at 5.8% of the total labor force, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter, breaking the previous low of 6.1% recorded by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in the second quarter of 2025.

The estimated size of the labor force was recorded at 35.636 million individuals, up from 35.412 million in the previous quarter, an increase of 0.6%.