Egypt: 42% of Population Living under Poverty Line

According to an official report, the number of Egyptians living below the poverty line in all governorates has risen from 55, 40 per cent in 2004/05 to 69, 41 per cent, adding that the lower poverty line hit a steady increase during 2007 and 2010. Poverty rates increased in Egypt by about 3.29 per cent during the past 10 years, where the percentage of the population living below the national poverty line increased to 8, 11 per cent during the same period. This information is based on a report by a team of experts in collaboration with Mahmoud Abdel Hai, Director of Institute of National Planning (INP).
 
According to the INP, nearly 5 million people do not have enough to eat as productivity, imports, price and regulatory factors having adverse effects have aggravated the severity of the food security situation in Egypt.
 
An experts’ report has revealed that the government’s economic policies over the last 10 years on the effects of the global crisis, tend to favor the wealthy in general, and this policy is most stressful on the poorest segments of the population. Economists maintain that it reflects a little of the ruling party’s performance.
 
The economic crisis in general has contributed to the deterioration of living standards and the quality of life for many people in the fragile middle classes, said the report, adding that the Egyptian market responds quickly to any rise in global commodity prices and is almost non-existent at low prices.

 
Job opportunities provided by the national economy fell to about 600,000, down to 13% in 2009, experts said.