(MENAFN- Jordan Times) CAIRO - Egypt announced on Thursday a 15-per cent increase in petrol prices, part of a reform package requested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to proceed with a $5 billion loan to the cash-strapped government.

The Egyptian petroleum ministry said the price hike would come into effect on Friday.

The announcement comes ahead of an IMF meeting on Monday to review the April payout package, unlocking $820 million in funds after Cairo received another such tranche of the loan in late June.

Egypt is suffering its worst ever economic crisis, with ballooning foreign debt driving up
inflation and resulting
in several consecutive
devaluations of the local
currency against the
dollar.

Inflation peaked at
nearly 40 per cent last
year, before winding
down to 27.5 per cent in
June.

The IMF has demanded
wide-ranging
reforms, most notablyadopting a liberal exchange

regime as well
as limiting government
spending and incentivising
private investment.

Alongside the economic
crisis, Egypt has
also been caught in regional
tensions, with
bloody wars raging in
neighbouring Gaza and
Sudan.

Attacks by Yemen's
Iran-backed Houthi
rebels on shipping
around the Red Sea have
also hit revenues from
Egypt's Suez Canal, recording

a 23.4-per cent
drop in the 2023-2024
fiscal year compared to
the previous one.

The key waterway,
which connects Asia to
Europe, normally carries
about 12 per cent of global
maritime trade.

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