CAIRO, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has paid Libya 250 million U.S. dollars to complete a total payment of 1.5 billion dollars out of a 2-billion-dollar loan borrowed in March 2013, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) told official MENA news agency on Thursday.
"Only two installments of 500 million dollars are remaining and they will be paid next year," MENA quoted CBE Deputy Governor Rami Abul-Naga as saying.
He added that Egypt paid Turkey on Wednesday the last 200-million-dollar installment of a loan borrowed in October 2012, stressing "Egypt is committed to paying all its foreign debts on time."
CBE Governor Tarek Amer said in early October that Egypt had paid 17 billion dollars of its foreign debts since the country floated its local currency in November 2016 to face the shortage of foreign currency, noting that Egypt plans to pay another 8 billion dollars before the end of 2017.
Egypt's foreign debts rose by about 42 percent to reach 79 billion dollars in the 2016-17 fiscal year that ended late June, compared to 55.8 billion dollars a year ago.
"Foreign debt is within the safe amount as per international standards," said the CBE governor in a previous statement.
Suffering economic slowdown over the past few years of political turmoil and relevant security challenges, Egypt started last year a strict three-year economic reform program including austerity measures, energy subsidy cuts and tax increases, besides local currency floatation, which all led to nationwide price hikes.
Egypt's reform program is encouraged by a 12-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, a third of which has already been delivered to Egypt in two tranches in November 2016 and July 2017.
