Social protection programs help in decreasing poverty in Upper Egypt

CAIRO – 4 August 2019: Poverty rates in Upper Egypt have decreased compared to previous years because of the focus on social protection programs in the governorates of Upper Egypt, Deputy Minister of Planning, Follow-up and Administrative Reform of Planning Ahmed Kamali said Sunday.

Kamali pointed out in a statement that the government looked at the problems and took the appropriate measures to reduce poverty rates, adding that the Egyptian government is working to address the development gaps in the provinces.

If the poverty rate is measured now, the percentage will be lower than it was in the past, he said, noting that the poverty rate was measured at the peak of the economic reform program.

He stressed that it is necessary to know and study the causes of poverty and inflation first to be able to work to develop solutions, explainingthat the poverty rates over the past 20 years have been increasing even with economic growth during 2006/2007.

“With the decline in growth rates in 2011 and the start of the economic reform program, poverty rates must have increased,” Kamali said, stressing that the government has taken many measures to limit the increasein the poverty rate.

He clarified that some of such measureswillbe implemented in the short term, such as a Takaful and Karama program, and some willbe implemented over the long term.

The deputy minister of planning said that at the beginning of the implementation of the economic reform program, growth rate lowered, and inflation rates increased and the purchasing power of citizens have been affected of course.

“The inflation rate has now fallen to less than 10 percent, having previously reached more than 25 percent,” he stated.
On Tuesday, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAMPAS) announced that the percentage of Egyptians, who live in extreme poverty, rose to 32.5 in 2018 from 27.8 percent in 2015, with an increase of 4.7 percent.

According to CAPMAS’s latest survey on income, expenditure and consumption for 2017/2018, Egypt announced that he who earns less than LE 8,282 (US$ 501.03) annually and $1.3 daily, lives under the poverty line.