Egyptian Officials ‘on High Alert’ Amid Dramatic Price Hikes

Date: 17 January 2023 - 22:10

News ID: ۱۱۱۴۲۹

CAIRO (Middle East Eye) – Egypt’s presidency has issued instructions to governors and ministers to “urgently address the crisis of the shortage of basic foodstuffs” for fear of a new wave of protests in the country, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper reported.
The report comes after a sharp drop in the Egyptian pound, which fell nearly 4 percent against the U.S. dollar last week. The currency lost nearly half of its value last year after Cairo agreed to painful austerity measures to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund.
The devaluation has doubled the price of basic food like bread, meat, poultry, and dairy, which had already been high due to successive currency devaluations since an initial IMF deal in 2016.
The presidential directives are based on reports warning of the consequences of “a state of popular discontent”, according to government sources that spoke to the online paper.
Parliamentary and media sources said the ministers and governors are seeking to find urgent solutions, albeit temporary, to the successive economic and living crises, while some of them complain of two major obstacles.
The first is the lack of adequate coordination between the different ministries and institutions in the state, and the second is related to the interference of some officials from the security agencies, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
“Under the directives of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the armed forces continued to mitigate the living burdens of citizens and distributed large quantities of food baskets in various governorates of the republic to counter the economic repercussions,” said a statement issued by the armed forces last Monday.