The FAPC decision is effective starting Thursday at 2:00 am Cairo Time (GMT+2), according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources on Wednesday night.

The price of 80-octane gasoline rose from EGP 8 to EGP 8.75 per litre - a 9.3 percent increase.

A litre of 92-octane was raised from EGP 9.25 to EGP 10.25 and a litre of 95-octane from EGP 10.75 to EGP 11.50 - a 10.8 and 6.9 percent increase, respectively.

The FAPC also raised the price of Mazut for non-electricity and bakery uses to become EGP 6,000 per ton, up from EGP 5,000 - a 20 percent increase, according to Wednesday’s decision.

Moreover, it raised the price of natural gas for vehicles to register EGP 4.50 per metre.

The FAPC, which was established in mid-2019 by the petroleum ministry, follows up and implements automatic pricing mechanisms for petroleum products on a quarterly basis.

Wednesday's meeting was the first for the FAPC in 2023.

In its last meeting in October 2022, the FAPC decided to keep fuel prices unchanged until the end of December after raising them in July for various octanes by EGP 0.5 to EGP 1 per litre.

The fuel committee convenes every three months to assess the prices of petroleum products and propose changes in line with the international price of Brent crude oil and the price of the dollar against the Egyptian pound.

However, the FAPC only issues non-committal recommendations regarding fuel price movement which cannot exceed 10 percent in either direction.

Under the $3 billion loan programme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which came into effect in late December, Egypt is committed to a flexible exchange rate monetary policy regime.

The government is also committed to refraining from implementing any formulaic decreases in fuel prices until fuel subsidies that are marked for each product subject to the mechanism have been eliminated in the FY2022/2023.

Last year, fuel prices in Egypt remained relatively low to the indexation formula despite rising oil prices globally.

The Egyptian pound has been devalued three times since March 2022.

The US dollar curently trades at EGP 30.6.

According to Statista, the average annual price of Brent crude oil stood at $82.5 per barrel in January 2023 - $18 lower than the annual average in 2022.