The Egyptian government is negotiating an emergency plan with the pharmaceutical industry in which it would subsidize essential drugs. In the meantime, some Egyptians have set up an informal market on Twitter – offering to sell or give away extra insulin and other drugs to people in need.
Even Egypt’s upper classes have been hurt by the currency plunge. At the American University of Cairo, popular among middle- and upper-class Egyptian families, students held a sit-in last week at the prospect of sharply higher tuition.
Upscale online supermarkets normally full of imported foods are now full of “out-of-stock” notices instead.
Many economists have welcomed the measures to overhaul the economy, but say they need to be part of structural rather than cosmetic change that would make it easier for companies to invest in Egypt and create jobs.
“We are a country with limited resources and we have to make choices on spending,” says Ziad Bahaa el-Din, a former deputy prime minister in Egypt.
The economic crisis has had political implications. Some Egyptians, who remained silent as security forces killed hundreds of protesters and imprisoned thousands more over the past three years, now openly criticize the government.
Egypt’s current government, led by former army general Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, took power after a military coup toppled the previous elected government.
“You did not wake up because of the blood and now you are because of sugar and rice?” writes Mohammed Abo El-Gheit, a columnist for al-Araby al-Jadeed.
El-Din, the economist, says despite the economic misery, he isn’t expecting unrest.
“On the whole, Egyptians after five years of political change do not have a lot of appetite for dramatic change and most people are really willing to endure a lot to avoid other forms of turmoil,” he says.
Article Appeared @http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/11/21/502841567/amid-economic-crisis-even-sugar-becomes-a-luxury-in-egypt