President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi promised Sunday a drop in the price of basic commodities by the end of November. Sisi made the comments in an educational seminar for the Armed Forces where he addressed the economic and security issues facing Egypt. He said that “the armed forces and the state” will work on providing goods at lower prices.
Sisi attributed the hike in prices to the dollar crunch and the depreciation of the Egyptian pound against the dollar.
Since January, the Egyptian pound lost 79 piasters against the dollar, taking the currency’s decline to the year to 11 percent, officially selling for 7.93 per dollar. The pound is projected to change hands at between 8.20 and 8.25 to the dollar by the end of 2015, according to economic and investment analysts.
Sisi’s comments come as Egypt’s urban consumer inflation jumped to 9.2 percent in September from 7.9 percent in a record low in August.
