Egypt on Tuesday raised electricity prices by an average of 26 per cent for the 2018-19 fiscal year, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said.
The North African country’s fiscal year starts on 1 July and ends on 30 June the next year.
The ministry also announced new cuts on electricity subsidies, as Shaker was reading in a televised press conference.
Shaker added that the subsidy in the electricity sector reached US$ 2.6 billion (47 billion Egyptian pounds).
He added that electricity costs for factories would rise about 41.8 per cent and 20.9 per cent for households.
Egypt has started in 2016 a three-year economic reform program including austerity measures, fuel subsidy cuts and tax increase.
The program is encouraged by a 12-billion-dollar loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Shaker added his ministry is working on diversifying the resources for generating electricity of nuclear and renewable energies to cover 30 per cent of the country’s needs.
