How Egyptians are responding to soaring costs
A campaign to lower food prices for Egyptians has good intentions, but economic experts say it will have no lasting impact.
Egyptian consumers are being pushed — perhaps to their breaking point — by the surging US dollar exchange rate, the state’s lifting of energy subsidies and its imposition of a new value-added tax. Many people can no longer meet their needs with their low incomes.
In response, a call has been issued for a popular revolt Nov. 11. This call is known among social media users as Thawret el Ghalaba, which translates to Revolution of the Poor. The movement’s Facebook page, which has attracted more than 100,000 followers, urges the public “to overthrow the corrupt regime and liberate the country from those who have betrayed and humiliated the Egyptian people.”
Some TV news personalities and officials have become concerned about the movement and decided to launch their own effort to help the poor. On Oct. 3, TV anchor Amr Adeeb announced The People’s Order, a campaign seeking to lower commodity food prices by 20% for three months. His TV crew, which is also working on the campaign, said that as of Oct. 16, 55 companies had joined the campaign.
Among those companies, however, are many that do not even produce food, such as factories and businesses that manufacture ceramics and stationery products, hospitals, telecommunications providers and some producers of cotton, textiles, electronic devices, car parts and perfumes.
