Egypt's market has been expecting the government's decision on the new fuel prices after applying the automatic fuel pricing mechanism.



Amid expectations to fix the price or decrease it, Saad Ibrahim, a member of the Petroleum Division at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FECC), told Ahram Online that the Automatic Fuel Pricing Committee was very late to discuss the new fuel prices after applying the automatic pricing mechanism, which started on 1 October.



Ibrahim said that with the application of the last cut in fuel subsidies in July, the committee was assigned to apply the new mechanism which tied the price of Egypt's fuel to global prices, in line with the economic reform programme Egypt has adopted since November 2016.



"The committee should have announced the new prices on 1 October, or a night earlier, to be implemented once the decision was taken.



"The delay in the announcement does not serve Egypt's economy at a time the country is facing multiple political and economic challenges on the domestic front, in addition to regional threats," Ibrahim pointed out.



Since the new mechanism had been announced three months ago there was sufficient time for the committee to conduct its research into the global economic data, including global fuel prices, but that didn't happen, according to Ibrahim.



The Egyptians welcomed all the economic reform procedures in cooperation with the state to achieve the desired economic growth, he added.



He anticipated the government would take the Automatic Fuel Pricing Committee'srecommendations to account and fix fuel prices at the latest set in July due to the stable prices of global oil despite the recent attack on Saudi Arabia's Aramco Company.





https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/352039.aspx