Egypt keeps bread subsidies

Egypt will maintain the prices of its heavily subsidised bread amid a 17 percent hike in fuel prices, as the world continues to grapple with an energy crisis, Supply Minister Sherif Farouk said in a statement on Tuesday.

Egypt, one of the world’s biggest importers of wheat and gas, will "take precautionary spending rationalisation measures", Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said, as the region reels from the economic impact of the joint US-Israeli war on Iran.

Cairo said it would "absorb additional production costs, including those from higher diesel prices, to prevent any financial burden".

Subsidised bread is a cornerstone of Egyptian society, benefitting around 105 million Egyptians, who mostly live close to or under the poverty line. The bread, known as eish baladi, has been supplied under a decades-old programme that combines food subsidies and bread allowances.

Subsidy card holders receive an allowance of five flat, round baladi bread loaves per day per family member.