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Amr Adib broke ranks last night from most of his fellow hosts last night who were fixated on the war on Gaza, by shifting his attention to the EGP exchange rate on the parallel market and rising sugar and cigarette prices.
The EGP’s fall in the parallel market has left Adib perplexed: The currency has been stuck at near EGP 50 in the parallel market for the past two weeks, El Heyaka’s Amr Adib said (watch, runtime: 2:43) before bringing on economist Samir Sabri to weigh in on the issue (watch, runtime: 11:13). “This is not the real or fair value of the EGP … No country can have a sustainable economy with such a huge gap between the official and parallel market exchange rate [for the USD]. The gap is so big that it makes it difficult to estimate the cost of projects or investments or attract foreign investors,” said Sabri, who is also a member of the National Dialogue’s investment committee.
Blame consumer worries, they said: “Over the past two weeks, the panic over the collapse of the EGP against the USD increased … The war near our borders, the major drop in remittances from Egyptians abroad, and the dip in tourism has increased the amount of currency speculation,” Sabri told Adib. Most analysts had suggested a fair value for the EGP was something on the order of 36 to the greenback at the end of 2023 and 38-39 by the end of 2024, Sabri added.
What’s the parallel market price? One greenback is going for EGP 48.68, to hear Adib tell it, though pricing and availability vary widely in the parallel market, where liquidity and pricing are opaque by definition.
Also stressing out Adib: Sugar prices, which jumped from their usual EGP 27-30 per kilo to EGP 34-40. The entire world is battling heightened inflation, but commodity prices never see such dramatic jumps, Adib said (watch, runtime: 5:21). “Traders are taking advantage of the war on Gaza and [sugar being sent to Gaza as] Egyptian aid to hike up prices,” he added, calling on traders to take it easy on already cash-strapped consumers.
What’s behind the rise? “We are nearing the end of the sugar beet and sugar cane agricultural cycle. We are also nearing Ramadan, which pushes food producers and traders to up their sugar reserves, increasing the demand on sugar,” Assistant Supply Minister Ibrahim Ashmawy told Ala Maso’uleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 6:33). “We are a free market and obliging traders to respect a certain price is against the constitution.”
Cigarette prices were also driving Adib nuts: State-owned tobacco giant Eastern Company last week hiked prices between 12-33%, which in turn increased the prices cigarettes are going for in the black market even further, with some brands going for as high as EGP 125 per pack, Adib said (watch, runtime: 1:56). “You can’t ask people to quit smoking,” Adib told his viewers and argued that the price hikes will not prevent people from smoking.
Live from Rafah: Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 6:59 | 2:47) left her studio last night and visited the Rafah border to bring us the latest developments on wounded Gazans receiving treatment at the Arish hospital and the latest on aid convoys going into the besieged territory.
Wall-to-wall Gaza coverage dominated most of yesterday’s talk shows:Masa’a DMC interviewed former Egyptian diplomat Gamal Bayoumi (watch, runtime: 6:01) to discuss all that Egypt has done for the Palestinian cause, while Al Hayah Al Youm spoke to the head of central administration of the North Sinai Governorate on all things Gaza aid (watch, runtime: 7:52). While Ala Maso’uleety spoke to Arab League spokesperson Gamal Roshdy to reiterate the Arab stance on the issue (watch, runtime: 18:39).
COMING SOON TO A TV NEAR YOU- Get ready to tune in for another one-on-one with Satterfield: Yahduth Fi Masr’s Sherif Amer sat down (watch, runtime: 0:50) with the Biden administration’s Middle East humanitarian envoy David Satterfield for an interview that will be aired tonight on MBC Masr. In case you missed it, El Hadidi hosted Satterfield earlier this week for an interview where he came off as a tad unsympathetic for a humanitarian envoy.
