Egypt's three largest state-owned banks will issue euro-denominated debt certificates for Egyptians living abroad, with maturities of one, three and five years, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) said on Saturday.

Egypt aims to encourage millions of Egyptians living abroad to pour their foreign currency savings into such certificates as it tries to ease an acute shortage of foreign currency that has hit the economy.

The one-year certificate will have an interest rate of 2 percent, the three-year certificate will have an interest rate of 3 percent, while the five-year certificate will have an interest rate of 3.5 percent, NBE, the largest state-owned bank, said in a statement.

The minimum value for the certificates will be 100 euros ($111.51).

The top three state banks, NBE, Banque Misr, and Banque Du Caire, had already announced a similar scheme on Feb. 29 for dollar-denominated certificates.-Reuters