Egypt plans to issue international sovereign sukuks during the fiscal year 2019-2020, Egypt's finance minister said on Wednesday.

 

The instruments to be issued may attract a new class of investors to Egyptian government debt instruments.

 

Earlier on Wednesday, an e-government publication was published by an unnamed government source that the Finance Ministry plans to pass new legislation to issue international sovereign sukuks for the first time in 2019. Egypt aims to issue about $ 20 billion of international bonds denominated in different currencies until 2022.

 

"We plan to issue international sovereign sukuk during the fiscal year 2019-2020," Maait told Reuters.

 

Egypt's external debt stood at 92.64 billion dollars at the end of June, up 17.2 percent year-on-year.