On Nov. 1, as Egypt’s economy was moving into choppier waters, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi raised the issue of rapidly inflating prices in a televised public address. Promising quick action, Sisi pledged to “all needy people that, God willing, by the end of this month [November], the state will have lowered prices.”
According to the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, Egyptians spend 40% of their income on food on average, and the country is widely known to be the world’s largest importer of wheat, in an economy heavily dependent on foreign production.
