A presidential decree lets 26,690 feddans of state land be used to reduce public debt, as Cairo targets debt of 69.5% of GDP by 2030.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has issued a decree handing about 26,690 feddans (about 112 million square metres) of state-owned land in the Red Sea governorate to the finance ministry for use in reducing public debt and issuing sovereign sukuk, Daily News Egypt reported on Wednesday, 11 November.
The decree, published in the Official Gazette, amends an earlier 2026 decree that had allocated the same land only as backing for sukuk, Islamic bonds. Adding debt reduction to its permitted uses gives the treasury another way to use state assets against its liabilities.
The move came as Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk to review recommendations from the Egypt Forum 2026 on cutting the debt of budget-sector bodies. The forum set a path to public debt of about 69.5% of GDP by 2030, with fixed ceilings on public debt, external debt and sovereign guarantees. Madbouly called debt reduction a top priority, to lower interest costs and free money for public services.
Kouchouk said the budget sector's debt-to-GDP ratio has fallen since the 2023/24 fiscal year, by about 14 percentage points between June 2023 and June 2026, and that its external debt fell by the equivalent of about 3.9% of GDP in 2025/26. Madbouly asked for a detailed plan assigning tasks to each ministry, to be presented to the president.
