(Ricardo Garcia Vilanova/AFP Photo/File)
With the increasing prices of food items due to continuously rising inflation rates, Egyptian families spend a high amount of money on food during Ramadan due to the special traditions of the month.
Daily News Egypt asked several families located across Cairo, and all respondents agreed that they spend no less than EGP 2,000 during Ramadan on food products.
Sanaa, a housewife living in Heliopolis, said that she spends around EGP 1,000 on Ramadan Yameesh and another EGP 1,000 on basic food commodities to feed three people.
Mervat, a housewife living in the Fifth Settlement, said that she spends EGP 7,000 during Ramadan to feed three people. Meanwhile, Marwa, a housewife living in the same neighbourhood said that she spends EGP 4,000 to feed two persons.
Abdel-Azim, a graphic designer living in Haram Street in Giza, said that the situation is different for him. He, with his wife and two children, spends the month in his mother’s house, where they all spend between EGP 2,000-3,000 on food.
Prices of food commodities increase in Ramadan, as the demand grows compared to other months of the year. Average prices of food commodities list as follows: EGP 80 for 1kg of meat, EGP 50 for 1kg of chicken, EGP 30 for 5kg of rice, EGP 42 for 3 litres of cooking oil and EGP 4.5 for 1kg of sugar.
In preparation for Ramadan, the government tries to curb the increasing prices through establishing food exhibitions in different governorates to sell basic food items at discounted prices.
Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafy announced in a Wednesday statement that he has increased censorship on government-affiliated consumer complexes in governorates, to prevent the smuggling of products to the black market.
However, Hend, a housewife living in Mokkatam, said that she never went to these product complexes, despite the discounts, as she has concerns on the quality of the products shown there.
Annual inflation rate in Egypt reached 13.5% in May, compared to 11% the previous month, an increase of 2.5%, according to a June Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) statement.
According to the statement, the annual inflation rate reached 11% in April, 11.8% in March, and 10.7% in February. However, last May it reached 166.9 points, compared to 164.7 points.
The agency attributed the high rate of inflation to the increase in the prices of food and drinks, which rose by 2.5% in May.
