The Kingdom approved yesterday $ 430 million in project aid to Egypt and would allow Cairo to use a $ 750 million line of credit to import oil products.
The aid, to be provided by the Saudi Fund for Development, is part of a package that Saudi Arabia announced a year ago to support the country’s cash-strapped economy.
Saudi Arabia earlier this month transferred a separate $ 1.5 billion to Cairo as direct budget support.
The new aid will finance three projects in Egypt worth $ 230 million, Ambassador Ahmed Kattan said in a statement.
It includes $ 60 million to supply drinking water to the Cairo district of Nasr City, $ 80 million to renew and replace irrigation pumps and $ 90 million to build seed storage silos.
The fund will also place $ 200 million in revolving credit in a bank account to help Egyptian small- and medium-sized enterprises, the statement said. Another $ 750 million line of credit to finance Saudi exports to Egypt will be exempted from a requirement that it be used to buy nonoil products.
“Egypt has been exempted from importing $750 million worth of nonoil products from Saudi Arabia ... based on the severe oil-products shortage faced by Egypt,” Kattan said. “Oil will continue being exported to Egypt in batches as soon as possible.”
Saudi Arabia deposited $ 1 billion in Egypt’s central bank on June 2 and transferred $500 million to buy Egyptian T-bonds on June 4, Egyptian Finance Minister Mumtaz Al-Saeed said this week.
Egyptian financial newspaper Al-Mal said on Tuesday the Saudis would buy seven-year bonds carrying a coupon of 5 percent.
$ 430 m Egypt aid cleared
