CAIRO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Monday that the country's foreign debts have increased by 32.5 percent since July 2016 until March this year.
According to a CBE report, the debt increased by 18.1 billion U.S. dollars during this period, registering 73.9 billion dollars in March 2017.
The CBE attributed the debt rise to the increase in loans by 19 billion U.S. dollars and the decreased value of loans currencies against the Egyptian pound.
The Egyptian government agreed to a three-year, 12 billion dollars loan program in November last year that is tied to ambitious economic reforms such as subsidy cuts and tax hikes.
The North African country has already received four billion U.S. dollars of the loan.
Egypt has been facing economic recession over the past few years due to political turmoil and relevant security issues, which led to declining tourism and foreign investments amid growing budget deficit, inflation rate and foreign and domestic debts.