A quarter of Egyptians are now classified as poor, with the cost of food eating out the biggest chunk of their budgets, Sherine Abdel-Razek reports Official statistics published last week showed that the poverty rate climbed steadily over the last 12 years of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's rule. According to figures released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), the poverty rate in Egypt increased to 25.2 per cent in 2010/2011. In 2008/ 2009, it was at 21.6 per cent, and at just 16.7 per cent in 1999/2000. The CAPMAS survey classified poverty as spending per person falling below LE3,180 per year, or LE265 per month. Therefore a family of five needs LE1,270 per month to secure basic needs. This is unaffordable for many Egyptians, in light of the fact that the minimum wage in Egypt is set at LE700. The increase in the number of people living in poverty over the course of the past two years is "very high", according to Heba El-Leithi, professor of statistics at Cairo University. El-Leithi is among the authors of a study examining the effects of high growth rates, during 2005-2008, on the country's poor. El-Leithi believes that this leap stems from distorted economic policies that gave priority to pushing growth rates up, while paying less attention to the welfare of the poor. "Growth was only on paper. It was not real. We waited in vain for the trickle-down effect to happen," she said. Monet Doose, a macro economy analyst at Prime Securities, pointed out that if we take other criteria to measure poverty, such as purchasing power, the percentage is even higher. As for the past year, CAPMAS figures cover only the first six months of the 25 January Revolution which toppled the Mubarak regime. Current figures, given the high number of layoffs and severe losses in certain sectors such as tourism, are bound to be much higher, said El-Leithi. On a more positive note, the percentage of those living in extreme poverty -- those spending less than LE172 a month (or LE2,064 annually) -- has declined marginally. The proportion fell from 6.1 per cent in 2008/2009 to 4.8 per cent in 2010/11. However, both figures are still far higher than the 1999/2000 proportion of 2.9 per cent. This improvement came on the back of several policies adopted since 2008 to support social welfare like increasing the number of beneficiaries of ration cards and the introduction of social security pension, a LE100 per month for those unemployed. The survey, coming out with the income and spending survey, highlights interesting facts about the features of Egyptian poverty. Fifty-one per cent of those living in the rural areas in Upper Egypt and 21 per cent who live in the urban areas of these governorates are poor. This increased from 44 and 21 per cent two years ago. "Upper Egypt is an area that was excluded from development plans for years," said El-Leithi. One of those governorates, Assiut, includes the highest poverty rate, as 69 per cent of those who live there are classified as poor. Assiut was in the same rank two years ago, but with lower percentage of poor people. On the contrary, the Red Sea governorate, which includes the touristic cities of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada, is the wealthiest governorate with only two per cent of its inhabitants not able to make ends meet. Proving the belief that poverty and illiteracy go hand in hand, the survey shows that 36 per of those who are illiterate are poor, compared to only seven per cent of those holding a college degree. However, the number of university graduates who can't cover their basic needs is on the rise as it was two per cent only two years ago. According to the survey, large families with around 10 members suffer the most from poverty as 64 per cent of such families can hardly afford the living costs. Talking about patterns of spending, CAPMAS figures showed that Egyptians on average spend LE22,254 per year, LE1,854 on average monthly with those living in urban areas spending more. Those living in rural areas in Upper Egypt spend only LE16,777 per year. Less than five per cent of the Egyptian population spend more than LE50,000 per year, while 27 per cent spend LE10,000 per year. Egyptians spend most of their money on food and drink. Forty per cent of most people's income is eaten up by these items. Housing takes 18 per cent of Egyptians' income, while health only has an eight per cent stake. Entertainment and culture takes up only 2.2 per cent of family expenditures. Most Egyptians spend 30 per cent of their food budgets on meats. Interestingly, people's spending patterns on food vary according to where they live. While those living in urban areas spend more money on dairy products and fish, rural dwellers spend more on legumes, bread and oil.
