Eastern Tobacco, a public monopoly, announced yesterday it was raising the prices of 9 kinds of cigarettes in produces, all of them Egyptian brands.

The company sent a release to the Egyptian stock exchange saying it was increasing its prices on the local brands, by an average of 8.4 per cent (range: 2.0 - 11.1 per cent), effective immediately.

However, Eastern did not alter the price of its most popular brand, Cleopatra Gold, which contributes 60 per cent to the company’s top line.