CAIRO: Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has urged anyone who can resolve the nationwide problem of price rises to come forward with ideas, the official MENA news agency reported on Monday.
Nazif said he was worried about price hikes of food, building materials and an inflation rate which reached 15.8 percent in March, in an interview with the ruling National Democratic Party s mouthpiece Al-Watani Al-Youm, carried by MENA.
Anyone who has a solution in this area is urged to come forward, Nazif said in his appeal.
He said the government has taken measures to curb inflation, including raising salaries, reducing customs and banning exports of staple commodities.
The premier also said President Hosni Mubarak had asked that all Egyptians receive a 15-percent salary raise, without elaborating.
Egypt has been rocked by a wave of protests against skyrocketing prices in recent months.
The price of cereals and bread has leapt by nearly 50 percent over the past year, according to official figures.
The price of cooking oil rose by 45.2 percent, while foodstuffs generally rose by an average of 23.5 percent.
Egypt is in the grip of a serious bread crisis brought on by a combination of the rising cost of wheat on world markets and high inflation.
The price of bread has increased fivefold in private bakeries, creating panic in state-run bakeries that the staple may run out.
Scuffles in bread queues are a daily occurrence. In recent weeks, they have turned into violent clashes, leaving at least seven people dead, according to police.
The independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm put a countdown on its front page after Nazif said last month that the bread crisis would be resolved in six weeks. Seven days are now left until the May 5 deadline, according to the paper.
The deadline will fall a day after nationwide protests over price rises are due to be held on May 4, also Mubarak s 80th birthday.
The group organizing the May 4 protests, which will echo a similar day of action held on April 6, calls for civil disobedience and wearing black in mourning for the victims of Mahalla and the death of Egyptian and Arab media.
Economic reforms launched by Nazif s government that have yielded a seven-percent annual growth rate in the past three years have failed to trickle down.
A wave of recent protests, including by tax collectors, doctors, teachers and workers, is seen as potentially the most serious challenge to Mubarak s regime. -AFP
