Egypt raised the prices of domestic fuel by between 7-10% on Thursday, and kept diesel unchanged. The price of a litre of octane 92 petrol increased to EGP 10, from EGP 9.25. The price of octane 80 petrol fuel increased from EGP 8 to EGP 8.75, and octane 95 petrol rose to EGP 11.50 up from EGP 10.75.
This comes as the price of US dollar against the Egyptian pound has reached a record-high of EGP 30.65. Brent crude is now trading just above $83.33 a barrel on Wednesday.
Egypt had committed to implementing the automatic price indexation mechanism, linking fuel prices to the international crude oil prices and exchange rates since September 2019.
In October 2022, the Egyptian authorities reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3bn loan.
The loan aims to provide Egypt with balance of payments and budget support while catalysing additional financing from Egypt’s international and regional partners to maintain economic stability, address macroeconomic imbalances and spillovers from the war in Ukraine, protect livelihoods, and push forward deep structural and governance reforms to promote private sector-led growth and job creation. The agreement was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board in December.
Egypt’s IMF-supported economic reforms programme includes a durable shift to a flexible exchange rate regime, monetary policy aimed at gradually reducing inflation, fiscal consolidation to ensure downward public debt trajectory while enhancing social safety nets to protect the vulnerable, and wide-ranging structural reforms to reduce the state footprint and strengthen governance and transparency.
In January 2019, Egyptian authorities agreed with the IMF, to implement several reform measures, including the implementation of a fuel price indexation mechanism for all fuel products in June 2019.
