File Photo: A man waits tourists at a souvenirs shop at the Khan el-Khalili market in Old Cairo. Reuters
During the winter hours, commercial shops and malls will be permitted to open from 7am to 10pm, with extended closing hours until 11pm on Thursdays, Fridays, national holidays, and festive occasions.
For bazaars, cafes and restaurants, including those within malls, operating hours will be from 5am to 12am.
Workshops and handicraft shops in residential areas will operate from 8am to 6pm, except for those situated along highways and at fuel stations, as well as those providing emergency assistance services.
Pharmacies, bakeries, supermarkets, and fruit and vegetable shops will continue to operate around the clock. Takeaway and home delivery services offered by cafes and restaurants are also exempt from these regulations.
According to Article No. 6 of the ministry's law to regulate the opening and closing hours of commercial venues, summer operating times are observed between the last Friday of April and the last Thursday of September of each year.
These seasonal working hours were introduced in June 2020 to address concerns related to street and traffic congestion, crowd control, road safety, public health, noise reduction, and the preservation of public facilities and infrastructure.
Implementing winter operating hours for commercial venues comes nearly a month ahead of wintertime in Egypt, scheduled to begin at midnight on 27 October 2023.
When applying wintertime, Egypt will be in the GMT+2 time zone rather than GMT+3, as has been the case since April.
Years after Egypt had cancelled the seasonal time shift, in April 2023 it brought back Daylight Saving Time (DST), known as summertime, with the Egyptian cabinet arguing that DST would cut back on electricity consumption by 10 percent.
Daylight saving time is not new to Egypt; it has been applied, then cancelled, several times since 1957.
DST lasts between the last Friday of April and the last Thursday of October.
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