The decision came in light of “the increase in international prices for crude oil and petroleum products and the exchange rate of the pound against the dollar,” according to the FAPC statement.

This is the second meeting of the FAPC in 2023, following a March meeting where it raised fuel prices but kept the prices of diesel, that powers most public transportation, unchanged.

The price of 80-octane gasoline remains at EGP 8.75 per liter, while the price of a liter of 92-octane remains at EGP 10.25 and 95-octane remains at EGP 11.50. The price of Mazut, used for non-electricity and bakery purposes, was also left unchanged at EGP 6,000 per ton.

The FAPC decision came into effect on Thursday at 2:00 am Cairo Time (GMT+3).

The fuel pricing committee has been conducting quarterly reviews since 2019, taking into consideration global markets and exchange rates.

Under its ongoing loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government has committed to fully implementing the fuel price indexation mechanism by refraining from applying any formulaic decreases in fuel prices until fuel subsidies, for each product subject to the mechanism, have been eliminated.

In April, the Ministry of Finance announced that it had allocated EGP 119.4 billion to subsidise petroleum products in the 2023/2024 fiscal year.