Al-Ahram: Egypt: Measures to limit high prices of food commodities

The Egyptian government has decided to take several measures in order to limit the high price of basic food commodities and to ensure their availability in the market.

The state run al-Ahram daily quoted the Egyptian minister of information Safwat al-Sharif as saying that the government will allocate a sum of 6.1 billion ( Egyptian pounds) ( USD 260 million) to support basic food stuffs like rice, oil, sugar and lentils.

The government also decided, according to al-Sharif to consider lowering customs fees prescribed on basic food commodities to reduce the value of these fees and consequently to reduce prices of these commodities in the market.