Egypt will implement an automatic price indexation mechanism on 95 octane gasoline starting in April which will limit price changes to 10 percent, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said on Monday. “This does not mean an increase in price during the second quarter of this year,” he said. “The price may fall or rise or stabilise at its current rate.” Egypt is pushing ahead with tough economic reforms as part of a three-year $12 billion IMF loan deal signed in 2016. The reforms, aimed at attracting investors who fled during the 2011 uprising, have included new taxes, deep cuts to energy subsidies and a currency devaluation, putting the budgets of tens of millions of Egyptians under strain. In June, Egypt raised gasoline prices by up to 50 percent under the IMF programme.
