Egypt’s Sisi orders minimum wage hike as prices soar

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ordered a 50 percent raise to the minimum wage on Wednesday, as prices soar two years into an economic crisis. “Based on the state’s duty to support the citizen under the current circumstances, I have directed the government to enact a package of social protection measures that include raising the minimum wage by 50 percent, to reach 6,000 pounds ($194) a month,” Sisi said in a statement.

The move includes salary increases for public sector doctors, teachers and nurses, and will see the tax exemption ceiling raised by 33 percent for both public and private sector workers, his spokesman Ahmed Fahmy said. Fahmy said it was introduced to “lighten the cost of living burden on citizens”— buckling under the weight of an economic crisis that began in March 2022, and shows no signs of easing. A delegation from the International Monetary Fund, which has agreed to a $3 billion loan facility for Egypt, recently emphasized the “critical importance of strengthening social spending to protect vulnerable groups” and “ensure adequate living conditions for low and middle-income households” in the country. But loan tranches and program reviews have been repeatedly delayed until Cairo moves forward on economic reforms—including a “fully flexible exchange rate”, the IMF says. In a single year, the Egyptian pound lost half its value against the US dollar in successive devaluations. But, according to analysts, the government has propped up the currency since early last year to stem runaway consumer prices.