Back-to-school supplies prices remain stable: official

CAIRO – 17 August 2017: School supplies retain their prices since the second semester of last academic year 2016/17, School Supplies Division in the Chamber of Commerce revealed on Wednesday.

Ahmed Abu Gabal, the chairman of the school supplies division further stated that the prices of school supplies jumped by 200 percent by the beginning of last academic year with the Central Bank’s move to liberate the exchange rate last November and with the application of the value-added tax.

The liberation of the exchange rate came as a part of the government's reform plan aimed at clinching a three-year $12 billion loan from the IMF in an attempt to revitalize the Egyptian economy, which has been declining for the past 6 years, following 2011’s January 25 Revolution.

The Egyptian government ever since embarked on implementing a set of economic reforms which included floating the currency, cutting electricity and oil subsides and applying a value-added tax.

Speaking on the prices of notebooks, Gabal said that the domestic production already covers 80 percent of the market needs, and prices may vary depending on the quality and the size of the carbon used.