Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli said on Thursday 14/7/2022 that Egypt’s national projects contributed to declining the unemployment rate from 13% in 2014 to less than 7.5% now despite challenges.
Addressing a press conference, Madbouli noted Egypt consumes 270 million loaves daily, meaning 100 billion loaves annually, noting that one ton of wheat now cost $500.
Before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, one loaf of bread cost the State 60 piasters but was sold to citizens for 5 piasters but after the crisis it cost the State 80 piasters but the State did not increase its selling price, meaning that the State bears an additional EGP 20 billion.
Madbouli said the State decided to postpone the increase in electricity price for six months to ease burden on citizens but this postponement will cost the State EGP 10 billion to be funded from reserves.
The prime minister also cast light on a decision taken earlier to increase salaries of public servants and pensions as of April 2022 instead of July 2022 to alleviate the burden on citizens.
He also referred to the increase in the number of beneficiaries of Takaful and Karama program by 450,000 families to hit 4.2 million families which cost the State budget EGP 22 billion.
He also reviewed measures taken by the government to improve the living conditions of Egyptians, including the allocation of 8 billion pounds to social housing and EGP 11 billion to health insurance.
Madbouli said Egypt is keen on having a strategic stock of all basic commodities within an average of six months, noting that the food subsidy increased to EGP 90 billion instead of EGP 87 billion.
The premier pointed to the government’s raising of the ardeb’s ton of wheat from EGP 710 to EGP 810 with incentives varying between EGP 65 to 70.
Egypt was working to collect between 5 and 5.5 million tonnes of wheat and succeeded to collect over 4 million tons (80% of the target), the prime minister said, pointing out the government will announce a new program for encouraging farmers to cultivate wheat with better mechanisms.
He also mentioned that the government continues to subsidy fertilizers, saying the current price of a ton of fertilizer is between EGP 4,000 to 5,000, while the global price is between EGP 11,000 to 12,000.
He referred to presidential directives to expand social protection networks.
He also pointed to an increase in the allocations of the health and education sector this year to reach EGP 310 billion and EGP 317 billion, respectively.
Madbouli said Egypt is keen on increasing the income of the citizens, however, it does not have enough natural resources on which it could depend to increase its GDP.
Over the past five years, Egypt established more development projects to achieve a jump in the quality of life for the citizens, a matter which doubled the GDP, the premier noted.
The prime minister mentioned that the Egyptians’ income increased despite the overpopulation, a matter which shows the importance of increasing the development projects.
Source: State Information Service Egypt