Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly issued a decision on Monday to restrict the selling price of free-market bread in all shops. Free-market bread is sold outside the state's subsidised food card system. According to the decision, bakeries are obligated to announce the selling prices of these products to buyers. The decision will be applied for the coming three months. The decision detailed that the price of a 45-gram flat loaf of bread will be EGP 0.50, the 65-gram flat loaf for EGP 0.75, and the 80-gram flat loaf for EGP 1. Around 60% of Egypt's 102 million population relies on the subsidised bread, which sells at EGP 0.05 a loaf. The remainder of the population depends on the more expensive free-market bread. The second article of the decision said that anyone who violates this measure shall be punished with a fine of no less than EGP 100,000 and no more than EGP 5m. The decision comes after President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi directed that the price of free-market bread be controlled. Egypt is taking a lot of measures to deal with the increase in food prices amid the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is threatening to exponentially increase the prices of the world's food supply, which were already at their highest level in years. The two countries are among the world's top wheat exporters, according to the Harvard Growth Lab's Atlas of Economic Complexity, making up a combined 26% and 20% of global wheat and barley exports in 2019, respectively.
