The Egyptian citizen pays 85% of the actual fuel price in the current fiscal year (FY) of 2017/18, while the government will lift the fuel subsidies completely in FY 2018/19, according to member of parliament (MP) Talaat Khalil, a member of the Plan and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives. Khalil told Daily News Egypt that the government’s decision to lift fuel subsidies and leave citizens to face the risks of oil price fluctuations globally is a “disaster” in light of the low income of Egyptians, which does not exceed $3,000 annually. He added that the fuel subsidies decreased to EGP 61.7bn in FY 2016/17, compared to EGP 93.9bn in the previous year, stressing that the petroleum subsidies decreased in an unprecedented manner. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided to liberate the local currency in November, which increased the dollar price to EGP 20 per dollar at some point, leading to a wave of inflation up to 30%. Khalil said that the government expanded in internal and external borrowing in 2015/16, whereas the public debt reached EGP 2.99tn, compared to EGP 2tn in the previous year.

Source: Daily News Egypt July 11, 2017 12:56 UTC