11:40 PM
Wednesday 15 June 2022
Books – Abdullah Owais:
The statements of Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, this followingnoon, would have been reassuring to citizens, even if they carried some worrying phrases, such as inflation, which the world has not witnessed for fifty years, had it not been for the US Federal Reserve’s announcement of an unprecedented increase in interest rates since 1994. And between Madbouly’s statements regarding the availability of strategic and supply commodities, for a period of six months, and the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise the interest rate by 75 basis points, Salwa Mahmoud was following the two news.
Salwa, 46, is suffering from a sharp rise in prices, once morest the backdrop of global and local economic decisions, such as the depreciation of the Egyptian pound once morest the dollar by 14% last March, a month that witnessed a rise in the US interest rate also by 0.25%, followed by an increase in Last May, by 0.5%, a significant increase he had not done since 2000, until his decision today to raise the interest rate once more today, Wednesday, 0.75% for the first time in 28 years.
Salwa says she does not know how the decision will affect her family’s life, but she is not optimistic regarding it. You know that this might mean another expected increase in prices as a possible consequence of the decision only, in light of low salaries, which are not consistent with the rising prices of commodities increasing day following day: “For the first time following the decision to float I am interested in economic news, I do not understand these things, I am trying to understand them But in vain,” tells the woman who is trying to buy only the necessities, and save even a small amount for her house in case things get worse than that, especially as the Russian-Ukrainian war is still casting a shadow on the global economy, without signs of an end to the conflict.
The prices of goods in the Egyptian market have recently risen, which is something that the mother of four children who are studying in different stages notices. She tries to manage her home with her salary in addition to her husband’s: “The Prime Minister’s speech at noon was somewhat reassuring, but what happened during that night made me worry once more.” Egyptians sometimes express their feelings with the joke that in that era became “comic or memes” on the communication sites, which was evident on Twitter, as the phrases “the US Federal and the Egyptian pound” appeared among the most popular lists on the short tweets site.
Economist Ahmed Abu Ali says that this increase in the US interest rate will result in a new wave of dollar and capital migration from emerging economies to America, as well as a further increase in prices and services, in conjunction with the continuation of the Russian-Ukrainian war.