Egypt plans to reduce oil product subsidies to 30% over the next five years, Ahram Online reports. The announcement reverses an earlier plan, according to which, the government had previously hoped to fully eliminate subsidies by that time.
Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail announced the figures at a press conference on December 14th, stating that “We respect the previous government’s decisions and are committed to them, but there are changes we need to adhere to in the case of oil product subsidies, such as global energy prices and new discoveries among others.” Reducing the target is a result of lower global oil prices and increased domestic reserves, Reuters reports.
The news comes a week after the signing of the UN agreement on climate change. Subsidy elimination was a key tenet of Egypt’s COP21 conference proposal to reduce global warming.
