Egyptian banks lowered their interest rates on bids for treasury bonds by 1% on Thursday, according to a press release on Saturday by the Ministry of Finance, in which it called on Egypt’s retail banks and those involved in the country’s government securities market to help support the national economy.

Bids on treasury bills and bonds released by the Central Bank of Egypt for the Ministry of Finance were estimated to value upwards of EGP 3bn for a period of 182 days. These bills had an average interest rates decreasing last week from 14.825% to 14.156% at a rate of 0.6%, and were oversubscribed 1.6 times.

Regarding treasury bonds lasting 357 days, the Ministry of Finance estimated their value at upwards of EGP 4bn, with oversubscription rates reaching 2.25 times their original value, and average interest rates decreasing from 15.41% last week to 14.61%, at a rate of almost 1%.