The 50-percent oversubscription by commercial banks "reflects the high liquidity available in Egypt's banking sector," said a finance ministry official cited by MENA.

It also reflects "the confidence of financial institutions in the ability of Egypt's economy to overcome the crisis caused by the current developments," he said, referring to ongoing anti-regime protests, which are in their third week.

The bills were part of a previously-announced programme that is put in place to secure government budgetary needs in the fiscal year 2010-2011.

The offer was initially for 15 billion pounds of treasury bills, but the ministry decided to accept subscriptions for 13 billion pounds only to avoid "exaggerated hikes in interest on the treasury bills," the official said.

The official said the high value of this offer, in comparison with earlier sale of bills, was due to a 10-day shut down of banks during raging protests against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, which went into their 15th day Tuesday.

The official said also the finance ministry repaid on Tuesday matured bills worth 6.1 billion pounds ($1.04 billion).