Egypt Subsidy Bill Falls to $515 Billion by June 2019

Egypt's fuel subsidy bill has fell to around 85 billion Egyptian pounds or 5.15 billion US dollar in the 2018-2019 in the current financial year which ended in June.

Fuel Dispenser
Source : BBC

The subsidy fell from 120.8 billion Egyptian pounds or 7.31 billion US dollar a year prior, a senior petroleum ministry official told Reuters on Monday.

Egypt raised domestic fuel prices by as much as 50 percent in June 2018, as part of an International Monetary Fund or IMF backed economic reform programme. It also hiked prices again in July 2019 by up to 30 percent.

Egypt spent 60.1 billion Egyptian pounds or 3.51 billion US dollar on fuel subsidies in the first nine months of the 2018-2019 financial year. This has been credit to Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla. He adds that a drop of 28.45 percent from the same period the previous year had been recorded.

Egypt has been reducing fuel subsidies as part of an IMF-backed reform program that began in 2016. The government spent 84 billion Egyptian pounds on fuel subsidies in the first nine months of the 2017-2018 financial year. The financial year runs from July to June.