Protesters condemn price hikes, demand minimum wage, reports Sarah Carr.
Category: Blog
Urban inflation hits 16.4%
From the Daily News Egypt:
CAPMAS announced Thursday that urban inflation in Egypt rose to a new three-year high of 16.4 percent in the year to April, up from 14.4 percent in the year to March.
Abu Bakr El-Guindi, head of the state statistics agency, told reporters in a news conference that inflation was driven mainly by higher food prices, which rose 22 percent in the year.
He added that in the month to April, prices of food and beverages rose 1.6 percent despite a decline in key prices such as rice, which dipped 8.4 percent, and wheat flour, which fell 6.5 percent.
Several public officials explained that prices of wheat flour on the domestic market have recently dwindled due to a drop in global wheat prices, which eased off to LE 2,500 per ton in April, compared to LE 3,000 per ton in March.
The decline has positively affected foodstuffs such as wheat flour, pasta and bread.
Rice prices have also dropped on the back of the government’s recent decision to ban rice exports from April 1 to October because of high prices of other grains, especially wheat, which has pushed up domestic demand for rice.
Inflationary pressure continued to escalate despite expectations that it would slow down in April.
“We expect the year-on-year change in the CPI [Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation] to be relatively stable or slightly less than the rate for March, considering the absence of additional significant increases in prices of goods and services in the CPI basket in April,” investment bank Beltone Financial said in a statement released before CAPMAS made its announcement.
“We expect the CPI to spike starting May, however, when the direct and indirect impact of the government’s measures starts affecting inflation,” added the statement.
President Hosni Mubarak — facing growing public unrest over price rises — offered last week public sector employees a 30 percent increase in basic salaries, provided necessary revenue could be found so that the increase did not add to the budget deficit. The decision prompted the government to introduce last Monday price hikes in several commodities including high-octane fuel, natural gas prices for energy-intensive industries, and cigarettes, as well as fees of vehicle licensing. The decision has boosted gasoline prices between 35-45 percent, which has raised inflationary pressure concerns.
Guindi said the latest price rises would show in the inflation figure for May, which will come out in June.
Simon Kitchen, senior economist at Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes, told Reuters on Thursday, “Most of this [inflation] is being driven by food prices and in the next couple of months you will see the effect of the fuel price rises taking effect. We are expecting inflation of around 20 percent by the middle of the year.”
Another Facebook activist detained and abused
Troubling news about Ahmad Maher!
Maher, facebook group editor, was kidnapped for 14 hours, blindfolded, handcuffed, tortured @new cai police st & lazoghli
— Nora Younis (@NoraYounis) May 8, 2008
The Daily News Egypt reports:
The administrator and arguably the real creator of the April 6 Strike group on Facebook Ahmad Maher was detained briefly Wednesday and beaten, his lawyer told Daily News Egypt.
Khaled Ali, who is the head of the Hisham Mubarak Center for Human Rights, posted details of the incident on the center’s website saying Maher was detained for the better part of the day before being released at dawn.
According to Ali, Maher was near his home in New Cairo and on his way to work at 1 pm when he was forced from his car and thrown into a microbus where he was transported to the local police station.
He was beaten there and then transported to State Security headquarters in Lazoughly downtown at 4 pm. There, he was reportedly tied at the feet and hung upside down and beaten again, Ali said.
Maher was dragged by the rope and was threatened with rape, all the while being questioned about the Facebook group and its password, Ali added.
When a group is created on Facebook, a password is not needed, with the creators and chosen “officers” given direct access to moderation of the group.
Maher was told that he amounted to nothing, the country was under control and a bunch of kids would not be able to change anything.
Ali told Daily News Egypt that State Security officers were angry that Maher had ignored a previous request to appear at the headquarters for questioning.
And then the bad-cop-good-cop game continues:
At that point another officer came in and shouted at the ones beating Maher telling them he had not ordered them to do this. The officer then told Maher they knew he was a patriot but that there were others within the group who were attempting to sabotage the country.
At that point the officer told him he would be released and he was given his clothes and other articles with the exception of his camera which the officer promised would be returned later. He was then taken back to his car at 4 am.