Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla was quoted earlier in the year as saying that fuel subsidies would be completely lifted by 2020. The draft budget approved on March 27 by the Cabinet for fiscal year 2019/20, which begins July 1,calls for Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly's government to cut fuel subsidies by around 42% to 52 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.94 billion), down from 89 billion pounds ($5.03 billion) in the current, 2018/19 budget.

“It is a big figure, but it is no surprise as the government announced subsidy cuts three years ago,” Rashad Abdo, head of the Egyptian Forum for Economic and Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor. “It said it would gradually lift fuel subsidies within five years. This has been well known to all. This explains why Egyptians have not demonstrated like Jordanians and Tunisians. In Jordan and Tunisia, the governments took them by surprise.”

Protests erupted in Jordan in 2012 and 2018 and in Tunisia in 2018 following the announcement of increases in fuel prices and various services.

In January, Madbouly had formed a committee on automatic pricing of petroleum products comprised of representatives from the petroleum and finance ministries and the state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). On March 31, the committee announced that it would keep the price of premium, 95 octane, gasoline, unchanged at 7.75 pounds ($0.45) per liter for three months from April 1 to June 30.