Egypt continues to convert deposits received from Qatar to bonds

Egypt has continued to transfer deposits received from Qatar to fixed-term bonds, after it issued a private placement for bonds worth US$1 billion in early July, in the second deal of its kind in a little over a month.

The $1 billion worth of bonds were issued for three years on July 1, with a yield of 3.5 percent by HSBC and QNB Capital, according to Reuters.

This comes in the wake of the issuance of $2.7 billion for the 18 months and 4.25 percent return in late May, as part of financial aid worth $5.5 billion from Qatar, which is expected to be transferred to securities.

The deal comes within the framework of a program for medium-term bonds worth $12 billion that began earlier this year. The transfer process came days before former President Mohamed Morsi was ousted.

Economists say that Egypt needs more for the economy to remain floating and that the Qatari aid alone is insufficient to ease the shortage of foreign reserves.

The country's foreign reserves declined to $13.4 billion in March, less than what is required to cover three months of imports.

Loans and aids from Qatar and Libya have supported foreign reserves, which climbed to $16.1 billion in May before sliding $1.12 billion to $14.9 billion in June, according to figures from the Central Bank.