Minister of Trade and Industry, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, on Tuesday ruled out the possibility that Egypt might undergo violent protests similar to those experienced recently by Tunisia and Algeria over unemployment and rising food prices.
Rachid said Egypt's government is committed to its policy of subsidizing certain food commodities by more than LE62 million, despite record increases in the prices of goods provided through the subsidy system, particularly in the case of cooking oil, rice, and tea.
"Conditions in Egypt are different from those in Tunisia, for instance, where protests erupted over unemployment," the minister contended.
He explained that Algeria experienced riots due to the lack of subsidies for food commodities, unlike the case of Egypt, which he said, has increased allocations for sugar subsidies by 40 percent, despite climbing global prices.
Rachid said that while subsidization forms a big burden on the country's resources, current circumstances dictate the channeling of extra resources toward subsidization, especially for the neediest social classes.
In 2008, Egypt witnessed limited strikes due to increasing global wheat prices which affected the production of bread, a principal component of Egyptian meals.
A report issued last week by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that food commodities reached a record high in December 2010, surpassing the 2008 rates, and fueling riots in a number of countries.
Independent sources report that more than 50 unemployment protesters in Tunisia have died in a week of clashes with security.
Egypt saw its last major protest in 1977, when millions of citizens took to the streets in protest against a decision that lifted subsidies on a number of basic commodities.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
