Egyptians greeted by hefty price rises in new year

Telecom Egypt SAE

02/01/2024 18:36

CAIRO, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Egyptians entered the new year
facing a series of price hikes as the government battles to keep
up with rampant inflation. 
    Telecom companies raised the prices of their internet
services, with state-controlled operator Telecom Egypt  ETEL.CA 
 (TE) increasing the prices of its internet services by about
33%, effective Jan. 5, according to a TE company official who
asked not to be named. 
    Private providers Orange  ORAN.PA  and Vodafone  VODE.CA 
also raised their internet fees, apparently after approval by
the National Telecoms Regulatory Authority. 
    Headline inflation in Egypt was 34.6% in the year to
November. 
    Electricity prices are also soon set to rise by around 15%
on average, according to reports in local media. The electricity
ministry has as of yet made no announcement. 
    On Monday, Egypt's transport ministry raised the price of
tickets on the Cairo metro by up to 20%, officials in metro
stations said, with a ticket for rides of nine stations or less
rising to 6 Egyptian pounds ($0.19) from 5 pounds and tickets
for some longer trips rising by even more.

 (Reporting by Cairo bureau
Writing by Patrick Werr
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((patrick.werr@thomsonreuters.com;))