Cairo - Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Thursday the latest economic reforms were inevitable, adding that the recent crippling devaluation of the country's currency would not last long and it might take months until the Egyptian pound reaches a balanced and fair price in exchange for the US dollar . President Sisi was giving a speech marking the Prophet Mohammed's birthday when he made this statement. Egyptian local currency's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar moved from 8.85 pounds to between 15 or 17 pounds on the official market. Sisi said that he and his government are trying not to "increase the burden on the low-income class", stressing that a bread subsidy programme would not be touched. Sisi said also that Egypt is in dire need of renewing religious discourse and correcting accumulated misconceptions on Islam, and he urged for religious discourse to uproot extremism. Referring to terrorist groups; "They want to destroy and terrorize the children, the women, and the elders," he said. "I want to tell them that God is on our side." He added that religious extremism poses a "huge intellectual battle" in addition to the "security and military measures needed to combat terrorism."
