Egypt: Fear of more unrest prompts Sisi government to lower fuel prices

Posted On 4 October 2019

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Cairo, Oct 4, 2019 – Egypt lowered fuel prices on Friday, the oil ministry said, following several rounds of price hikes as part of an austerity programme that have triggered discontent. The move comes a week after rare protests broke out in Cairo and other cities across Egypt calling for the removal of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The country’s pricing committee “decided to lower the prices of the three types of gasoline products on the domestic market by 25 piastres (0.015 US cents) a litre”, the ministry said in a statement Thursday. The price of 80-octane gas was cut to 6.5 Egyptian pounds, 92-octane to 7.75 pounds and 95-octane was lowered to 8.75 pounds. The decision comes “in light of the decline in the price of Brent crude oil in the international market between July and September … and the depreciation of the dollar against the (Egyptian) pound,” it said.

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Egypt has raised fuel prices several times as part of subsidy cuts under ambitious but tough economic reforms since general-turned-president Sisi took office in 2014.
The austerity policies, including subsidy cuts on essentials such as fuel as well as the devaluation of the local currency, are tied to a $12-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Egypt received the final tranche of the three-year IMF loan in August. Since Egypt’s agreement with the IMF in 2016, living costs have soared, hitting poor and middle-class Egyptians. Sisi regularly calls on Egyptians to endure the economic hardship promising future prosperity. Last month’s protests broke out in defiance of a ban on demonstrations after an exiled Egyptian businessman accused Sisi and the military of rampant corruption.

By AFP

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