Egypt has paid nearly 50 billion Egyptian pounds ($3 billion) in outstanding debt to its contractors and will continue payments in August, newspapers said on Thursday.

The dues, resulting from accumulating debt over executed projects during the 2019-2020 fiscal year, were paid after a series of meetings between the government and the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors, they said.

The projects cover housing, health, education, infrastructure and other sectors, the Federation's Chairman Mohammed Saad said, quoted by Al-Wafd and other dailies.

"The government has paid 50 billion pounds in arrears to the contractors for 2019-2020...we expect more payments to be made next month, including around 7-8 billion pounds ($432-493 million)," Saad said.

He noted that contractors could also benefit from soft-term loans offered by the Central Bank within its COVID-19 initiative to pump 100 billion pounds ($6.2 billion) into the economy.

(1 US Dollar = 16.13 Egyptian Pounds)

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

#Egypt #Construction #Infrastructure #EgyptianFederationforConstructionandBuildingContractors

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