Egypt is increasing residential electricity costs by as much as 50%, according to sources

Egypt is gradually eliminating subsidies as part of a deal with the International Monetary Fund, resulting in a 50% increase in home electricity rates, according to two official sources on Monday.

The new hike in electricity costs was implemented on Saturday for the prepaid meter system and would be implemented for normal meters on October 1, a source at the ministry of electricity told Reuters.

The source further stated that the raises range from 14.45% to 50%.
Due to widespread power outages caused by increased cooling demand, the most recent raise was supposed to go into effect earlier in the summer but was postponed.

Egypt, which claimed it needed to import natural gas and mazut fuel oil worth over $1.18 billion to stop the protracted cutbacks, turned to load-shedding in order to keep the grid operational. The majority of the electricity in the nation is produced by burning natural gas.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly later declared that power outages will halt for the rest of the summer after the petroleum ministry announced last month that Egypt had received five cargoes totaling 155,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas out of the 21 cargoes for which it had contracted.

Egypt agreed to reduce energy subsidies in exchange for an increase in its loan program to the IMF to $8 billion in March, but in the past, it had frequently delayed increases in electricity prices due to economic concerns.