CAIRO - Egypt expects to determine the currency of its next Eurobond issuance within two weeks, finance minister Amr El-Garhy told Reuters on Tuesday.

Garhy said the ministry is looking to issue Euro-denominated Eurobonds to fulfill short-term obligations and to diversify its currency basket.

The finance minister also said he expected Egypt's growth rate to reach 4.75-5.0 percent in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2017-2018, and its inflation rate to drop below 15 percent by the fiscal year's end.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Hugh Lawson) ((Nadine.Awadalla@thomsonreuters.com;))