The country’s finance minister, Mohamed Mait, said that Egypt’s 2024–2025 budget will include $2.66 billion for wheat subsidies and $3.13 billion for petroleum product subsidies.
According to Reuters, Egypt is one of the world’s largest importers of wheat, as well as other basic foods and fuels. The country is currently experiencing a foreign currency crisis, a gaping budget, and balance of payments imbalances.
Mait noted that a total of $12.67 billion was budgeted for social protection measures, with 134 billion Egyptian pounds specifically set aside for food subsidies.
Egypt’s subsidy programme provides subsidised rates for bread, rice, and sugar to almost 60 million Egyptians, out of a total population of 105 million Egyptians.
Egypt’s finance minister went on to say that the subsidies for petroleum resources were the result of rising global oil prices as well as the influence of foreign exchange rate adjustments.
In March, Egypt’s pound fell to around 47 pounds per dollar. The central bank recently raised key interest rates by 600 basis points.
Egypt’s currency is now fixed at approximately 31 pounds per dollar for the next 12 months.
According to the finance minister, Egypt’s overall expenditure would reach 3.9 trillion pounds ($82.89 billion) for the fiscal year beginning July 1st.
The revenue is estimated to be over 2.6 trillion pounds. Egypt has signed an additional loan agreement worth $8 billion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The World Bank has also offered $6 billion in help for Egypt over the next three years.