The Ministry of Supply has announced raising the prices of eight subsidized food commodities starting from October. The commodities are cheese, oil, lentils, vinegar, ghee, sauce, washing powder, and soap.
The ministry disbursed temporary additional support for food commodities last September. The support ranged between EGP 100 for ration cards that include one family, EGP 200 for cards with two or three families, and EGP 300 for cards with four families or more. Since mid-2017, the purchasing value of ration cards has decreased. The quantities of food commodities also declined. “The ministry is trying, by raising the prices of food commodities, to maintain a narrow margin of difference in the price from the market price,” said Heba El-Leithy, a professor of statistics at Cairo University. “However, the decline in the purchasing value of ration cards highlights the need to move the value of food support in a way related to inflation rates.”
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