- Title: EGYPT-FOOD PRICES Egypt shoppers bear the brunt of high food prices
- Date: 22nd June 2015
- Summary: ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (JUNE 21, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MERCHANTS SELLING VEGETABLES AT FOOD MARKET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOTHER OF TWO, OM AHMED, SAYING: "The prices are very high, son, and on television, they're saying conditions are good and stable and everything is great. The prices are high; a kilo of tomatoes is 6 (79 cents), 7 or 8 pounds and a kilo of okra is 27 poun
- Embargoed: 7th July 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Egypt
- Country: Egypt
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA29GJZQBIX29J8JC991SQS1FNS
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: At a crowded food market in Alexandria shoppers haggle over prices. But for many people here, they're having to tighten their purse strings.
Shoppers in Egypt's largest second city say the cost of living is on the rise, with salaries remaining the same.
Egypt has suffered from dire economic conditions since the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Although the country seems more stable, with protests banned and political stability and security restored, Egypt's impoverished majority still feels like a decent living is but a far-fetched dream.
According to World Bank figures, more than a quarter of Egypt's 82 million citizens live below the poverty line.
One shopper Om Ahmed said the poor were badly hit.
"The prices are very high, son, and on television, they're saying conditions are good and stable and everything is great. The prices are high; a kilo of tomatoes is 6 (79 cents), 7 or 8 pounds and a kilo of okra is 27 pounds. Fruit is expensive. The supply people should look at the prices and at the poor," she said.
Items which used to be affordable in the past are now too expensive for shoppers.
"Vegetables of all kinds are expensive; tomatoes are like 8 or 10 pounds a kilo, green peppers and lemons are 10 pounds a kilo. Everything is expensive and our income is the same. The prices of everything are increasing while our income is decreasing actually. So, now we don't really know what to do. We had hopes in God and President Sisi to fix things, but now no one is monitoring the prices or the markets, and the prices of everything is increasing. We don't know how to live,'' said one shopper, said he was struggling to feed his family in the current economic climate.
Egypt has been battling rising inflation since the government slashed subsidies in July, raising prices of gasoline, diesel and natural gas by as much as 78 percent.
According to the most recent data, Egypt's annual urban consumer inflation slowed to 11 percent in April from 11.5 percent in March.
But even predictions that inflation is set to fall to single digits in two to three years, according to the country's finance minister, are not of much solace.
"Zucchini used to be 2 pounds, now it's 7 or 8 pounds - tomatoes, the 4 kilos used to cost 4 pounds, now 1 kilo is 8 pounds. Everything is on fire in the country,'' said one elderly shopper.
"I can't work because everything is so expensive. I don't know how to feed my children. I go an buy some fats worth 5 pounds to sell it and make 5 pounds - a piece of rotten fats that we should be throwing in the garbage is for 5 pounds, that's what I' m talking about,'' added another unemployed man who said he was finding it difficult to support his family.
Gulf countries have sent Egypt billions of dollars in aid since the ousting of President Mohamed Mursi in 2013.
Many Egyptians had hoped that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who won the country's presidential elections last year would lead the country into prosperity after hardships that hit the poor hard following the uprising. But many feel they are still counting the costs of the country's bruised economy. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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