MORE Egyptians are now living below the poverty line, official data has shown. A report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) released last week showed that Egypt's poverty rate had increased to 26.3 per cent in 2012/13, compared to 25.2 per cent in 2010/11. This means that one more per cent of the population now earns less than LE3,920 per year, or around 10 pounds a day, reports Nesma Nowar. Meanwhile, the extreme poverty rate, which stands at an annual sum of LE3,570 per person, declined in the same period to reach 4.4 per cent of the population, compared to 4.8 per cent a year earlier. The report showed that the highest poverty rates were in the two southern Egyptian governorates of Assiut and Qena, at 60 and 58 per cent of the population, respectively. These were followed by Sohag at 55 per cent. Meanwhile, poverty rates in Cairo had reached 16 per cent of inhabitants. “The one per cent increase in the poverty rate is alarming,” said Heba Al-Leithi, a professor of economics at Cairo University. She said that the increase meant that around 800,000 individuals had plunged into poverty, adding that the situation was bad and that Egypt's poverty rate was getting closer to the very high poverty rates in Yemen, which had reached 34 per cent of the population. Neighbouring Arab countries like Lebanon and Jordan have poverty rates of eight and 14 per cent, respectively. Al-Leithi said that during the last year poverty had increased in urban areas, whereas it had not changed in rural ones. She attributed this to the fact that urban areas were more affected by the ongoing political instability than rural ones. The continuing disruption in urban areas had led to the halting of many businesses and had reduced the revenues of others, she said, which in turn had contributed to poverty. Street violence had hit businesses in major cities during the past two years, affecting both macroeconomic indicators and the informal economy, she added, mentioning high inflation rates as another contributor to the increase in poverty. Since the 25 January Revolution, the Egyptian pound has lost nearly 12 per cent of its value against the US dollar, which has led to an increase in prices in local markets. CAPMAS estimates that between June 2012 and June 2013, inflation was running at 10.9 per cent. During the same period, food prices went up by 13.8 per cent. “Should the political instability drag on and investments continue to be scarce, we should expect further hikes,” Al-Leithi told Al-Ahram Weekly. A recent report by the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights, an NGO, showed that over 40 per cent of the population lived below the poverty line of less than $2 a day. The report also showed that the overall unemployment had increased from nine per cent in 2010 to 12 per cent in 2011 and 12.8 per cent in 2012. The latest figure for the third quarter of 2013 was 13.2 per cent.
