Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, stated that there is no alternative to increasing fuel prices, especially since the cost of petroleum products’ subsidies will exceed EGP 100b in the new budget due to the 2016 flotation of the Egyptian pound. El Molla said that there is no exact time scheduled for the fuel price increase yet.

Despite the increase in inflation rates, the government is committed not to completely remove energy subsidies, according to Amwal Al Ghad.

El Molla pointed out that the state is willing to reduce and not cancel the fuel subsidies, through re- distributing it to citizens in need instead of providing subsided fuel to high income citizens.

In related News, Egypt’s House of Representatives’ head, Ali Abdel Aal,  denied raising fuel prices by July 2017, as many representatives asked the cabinet not to cut the fuel subsidies in order to control inflation rates,  Al Mal stated.