Egypt Raises Fuel Prices For Third Time in 2022

Egypt’s domestic fuel prices have increased once more, with 80-octane, 92-octane, and diesel fuels increasing by EGP 0.50 while 95-octane petrol increased by EGP 1, the Ministry of Petroleum announced in a press release on 13 July.

Price changes were made effective as of 13 July, 9 AM, seeing 80-octane, 92-octane, and 95-octane petrol increase to EGP 8 (USD 0.42), EGP 9.25 (USD 0.49), and EGP 10.75 (EGP 0.57) per liter respectively, while diesel increased to EGP 7.25 (USD 0.38).

The decision for the price hike is an automatic result of the petroleum ministry’s fuel pricing committee’s meeting, the deciding body for domestic fuel prices.

“The Fuel Automatic Pricing Committee, which is concerned with the monitoring and implementation of automatic pricing for petroleum products on a quarterly basis, decided, during a meeting at the end of June 2022, to amend the current domestic prices for the coming July/September quarter,” the statement reads.

The Fuel Automatic Pricing Committee’s quarterly price-indexation system is based on global fuel prices, the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar, and ongoing economic challenges, in a bid to decrease the budget deficits caused by subsidies.

An IMF-backed economic reform program in November 2016, which Egypt has been applying continuously, included the need to gradually decrease fuel subsidies.

This is the third time Egypt’s fuel prices increased in 2022, by EGP 0.25 (USD 0.013) on 4 February and 15 April, respectively.

Egypt’s petrol price hikes are sure to affect citizens’ cost of living, already made evident by the Ministry of Local Development’s announcement of tariff increases for internal and inter-governorate transportation, expected to be between five and seven percent.

The country’s rising cost of fuel comes in light of the ongoing global economic challenges, initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and aggravated by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, with Russia being among Egypt’s top refined petroleum importers.

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