The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Egypt said, on Thursday, that the Automatic Pricing Committee for Petroleum Products raised the price of “diesel” fuel by one pound, bringing the selling price to EGP 8.25 ($0.2666) per liter, but kept the price of gasoline unchanged.
The decision, which sparked controversy on the communication sites, coincided with the announcement of an increase in the prices of food commodities, at a time when the Egyptian government is struggling to control high inflation rates and the dollar shortage.
The ministry added in a statement that gasoline prices remained at 8.75 pounds ($0.2827) for 80-octane gasoline, 10.25 pounds ($0.3312) for 92-octane gasoline, and 11.50 pounds ($0.3716) for 95-octane gasoline.
The ministry’s statement, which was circulated by the Egyptian media, stated that the increase in the price of diesel came in light of the increase in international prices for crude oil and petroleum products and the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound against the dollar.
The rise in diesel raises controversy
The hashtag “gasoline” occupied Twitter in Egypt, at dawn on Thursday, after users of the communication sites received the news of the price hike, which began to be implemented as of two o’clock on Thursday morning.
Many expressed anger at the move, while others pointed to its timing coinciding with the increases in the prices of food commodities.
The rise in diesel prices caused an immediate increase in chicken prices on Thursday, after a period of stability in the market, according to local reports.
The rise in diesel prices coincided with the Egyptian Minister of Supply and Trade, Ali Al-Moselhi, announcing, during a press conference, on April 29, that some prices of food commodities would gradually increase within days, according to the cost price.
The increases in fuel and food prices come at a time when inflation in Egypt has reached its highest level in five years. Data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in Egypt showed, in April, that urban inflation rose to 32.7 percent in March on an annual basis, according to Reuters.
The high inflation rate in Egypt follows a series of devaluation measures that began in March 2022, along with a long-standing shortage of foreign currency and persistent delays in imports entering the country, according to Reuters.
Egypt, which reached an agreement on a $3 billion financial support package from the International Monetary Fund last December, has halved the value of its currency against the dollar since March 2022, after the repercussions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine revealed weaknesses in the Egyptian economy, according to the agency.
Not the first increase
The Committee for Automatic Pricing of Petroleum Products meets quarterly to set prices, according to official newspapers.
On March 2, the government decided to raise the price of gasoline in Egypt by about 75 piasters to the price of the most consumed 80-gasoline in the Egyptian market, as the highest rate of increase since the establishment of the Automatic Pricing Committee for Petroleum Products.
According to the Ministry of Petroleum’s statement, the government raised the price of 92-octane petrol by about EGP 1 per liter, as well as the price of 95-octane petrol.
This was preceded by another increase in diesel for the first time in 30 months, in July 2022, and its price rose to 7.25 pounds per liter, according to what the media reported.
At the time, the Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, said in a press conference, on July 14, that the government subsidizes diesel by about 55 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.92 billion) annually, despite the application of the first increase in its price in three years.
He added that fuel subsidies in the new budget amounted to about 30 billion pounds.
He explained that Egypt is an importer of petroleum products with a total of 100 million barrels per year, which is a huge number, noting that by the end of 2022 there is no longer any subsidy for petroleum products, and diesel is priced with gasoline.
The Associated Press predicted at the time that this move would exacerbate economic pressures on the country’s poor and middle class, which have been hit hard in recent years by the austerity measures imposed by the government’s ambitious economic restructuring programme.
At the time, the transportation authorities in Cairo also announced higher prices for various modes of transportation, including trains, subways, and taxis.
2023-05-04 00:41:48
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