Egypt president vows to increase price of subsidized bread

Egypt’s president has vowed to raise the price of government-subsidized bread

CAIRO -- Egypt’s president has vowed to raise the price of government-subsidized bread. It would be the latest in a series of austerity measures taken by his government in recent years to overhaul the country’s economy. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi offered no further details on the amount or timing of the price increase. He said the increase would help his government cover the cost of meals provided to the country’s school children. El-Sissi says that bread would remain subsidized, but to a lesser degree. Twenty subsidized pieces of bread cost one Egyptian pound ($0.064), while a single piece of bread usually costs between a half pound to a pound on the regular market. The Egyptian leader spoke during the opening of a food industrial complex, Silo Foods, in the Nile Delta province of Menoufia, which would provide school meals for around 13 million children across the nation of more than 100 million people, according to the state-run Al-Ahram daily.