Does External Debt Service Devalue Local Currency in the Long Run? Empirical Evidence from Egypt

The aim of this study is to identify the extent to which there is an effect of external debt service on the exchange rate in Egypt in the long run, where the change in the exchange rate has great importance in changing currency value and thus affecting its function as a store of value and a standard for forward payments and then in the redistribution of income and wealth, It also has an effect on some macroeconomic variables, such as inflation, exports, imports, and thus the current account. The study examines the estimation of the long-run relationship between the external debt service and the exchange rate in Egypt in the period 1980-2019 and relies on the exchange rate of the dollar against the Egyptian pound as a dependent variable, while the explanatory variables were the external debt service, gross capital formation, broad money growth, deposit interest rate, household final consumption expenditure, gross savings, and terms of trade adjustment. The methodology is based on Vector Error Correction (VEC) and the study concluded that there is a significant long-term relationship between the value of the Egyptian pound and all the variables explained in the study, as the error correction coefficient is negative and significant. Also, there is an inverse statistically significant relationship between the value of the Egyptian pound and each of the external debt service, the deposit interest rate, and gross savings; any change of 1% in the external debt service, the deposit interest rate, and gross savings leads to a devaluation of the Egyptian pound against the dollar by 4.8%, 0.04%, and 0.05%, respectively. The study also concluded that there is a positive, statistically significant relationship in the long term between the value of the Egyptian pound and each of gross capital formation, broad money growth, households' and NPISHs' final consumption expenditure, and terms of trade adjustment, as any change of 1% in these variables leads to an increase in the value of the Egyptian pound by 0.16%, 0.05%, 0.27%, and 6%, respectively. This study recommends that decision makers consider all the reasons that would reduce the external debt service in order to preserve the value of the Egyptian currency in the long run.