<\/p>\n
Under Egypt’s existing ration-card system that supports some 60 million people, each beneficiary receives 50 Egyptian Pounds ($1) a month, which can be spent on a limited list of \u2060subsidised goods at state-approved outlets. In parallel, about 70 million people benefit from a similar scheme to buy subsidised bread, for which Egypt imports 4 million to 5 million metric tons of wheat annually.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The cabinet said the new system would move beyond this fixed in-kind allocation, giving households more choice and paying out the actual cash value of the goods.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Supply Minister Sherif \u200cFarouk \u2060said the change addresses shortcomings in the existing in-kind system, including limited consumer choice and losses in distribution. He added that citizens would instead receive the cash value of the goods, giving them greater \u2060purchasing power.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Under the new system, the list of subsidised goods will expand beyond current staples such as cooking oil, sugar and pasta to \u2060include meat, grains, tea, milk, lentils, eggs, beans and poultry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly had said that Egypt is moving away \u2060from in-kind subsidies towards cash transfers in the current fiscal year, which ends in June 2027.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":43203,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-43202","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Egypt will expand its new cash-subsidy system to cover a larger basket of essential food items, the cabinet said this Wednesday, broadening a programme that \u200ccurrently offers only a handful of subsidised staples to millions of Egyptians.","published_date":"","news_description":"Egypt will expand its new cash-subsidy system to cover a larger basket of essential food items, the cabinet said this Wednesday, broadening a programme that \u200ccurrently offers only a handful of subsidised staples to millions of Egyptians.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43204,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43202\/revisions\/43204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}