President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi
approved a 13-percent increase in pensions, said Egyptian Prime Minister
Mustafa Madbouli in a press conference on Monday, adding that the increase
would be applied next April rather than July, at an additional cost of LE 8
billion.
The conference was held after a number of decisions taken by the Central Bank of Egypt regarding the rates of interest and exchange to mitigate the global economic repercussions of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia military escalation.
The Prime Minister said that the
government fixed the customs exchange rate at LE 16 per US dollar until the end
of April, and the cabinet meeting on Tuesday would announce a stimulus package
to the Egyptian Stock Exchange during the cabinet meeting.
“A total of 450,000 new families were added to the ‘Takaful and Karama’ pension, at an additional annual cost of LE 2.4 billion,” he said, noting that citizens whose annual income is less than LE 30,000 would be exempted from taxes.
During the conference, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Amer defended the bank’s decisions that have been adopted by the bank regarding the devaluation of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar by 16.67%.
“The Central Bank’s decisions regarding, interest and exchange rates are very good and strong. The decisions aim at preserving Egypt’s financial capabilities and maintaining the liquidity of the foreign exchange,” said Amer in a press conference on Monday.
Source: Egypt Today
