The impact of inflation isn’t felt equally by all Egyptians. For the upper middle class, it translated to switching to cheaper purchasing options or resorting to assets that can appreciate in value, such as stock or investments. But for the lower working class, it translates to more limited options, or spending days not purchasing anything at all. Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation has spiked to 15 percent, its highest in four years, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). However, for the majority of workers, higher price inflation is eroding the real value of what they earn. For them, economic hardship is not felt occasionally, but from the moment they wake up: having to eat less varieties of food due to fewer household products being available, depending on day-to-day income, and not knowing whether they will have enough income to live healthily sufficiently the next day. Sufficiency and good health are not the prime goals. Instead, it is survival. This is sharpened by the fact that many single-parent households, particularly those headed by women, face greater financial fragility and difficulty in obtaining pensions and…
No Cheaper Options: Low-Income Families Struggling in Egypt’s Economy
November 5, 2022
