Egypt To Raise Energy Prices "Within Days"

Egypt's Planning Minister Ashraf al-Arabi said on Wednesday the government was about to raise prices on most petroleum products, a move he said would push inflation into double digits.

"We will raise energy prices within days," he told Aswat Masriya, a news website sponsored by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

He said the increase would apply to gasoline, diesel, heavy fuel oil mazut and gas feedstock for factories but not cooking gas. He said electricity prices would go up for the heaviest consumers.

Arabi did not specify the size of the increases but said they would produce a "shock" in the price of other goods and services.

"The government expects to be in the double digits," he said. Urban consumer prices are up 8.2 percent year-on-year, according to government figures published in May.

Raising energy prices by cutting subsidies could be the first test for new President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who must improve state finances and revive an economy battered by more than three years of political turmoil.

Sisi, who ousted elected President Mohamed Mursi last July following mass protests against his rule, took office last month. He has called on Egyptians to tighten their belts and make sacrifices to get the country back on its feet.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb said on Wednesday a date had not been set for raising energy prices but could be announced "very soon", in comments reported by state news agency MENA.

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