<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Public anger has been growing for months in Egypt over a severe dollar crunch and soaring food prices. But for many a money-saving tip from a state body has been the last straw.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">As families have struggled to purchase household staples, an Egyptian government agency praised an alternative, cheap protein source -- "chicken feet, good for the body and the budget".</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The advice drew widespread scorn on social media while lawmaker Karim al-Sadat slammed it as "divorced from the reality of the crisis".</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The anger reflects the hardships of many in the Arab world's most populous nation, which recently had to ask for a $3 billion loan programme from the International Monetary Fund.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"The bread I used to buy for one Egyptian pound now costs three," said Rehab, 34, at a Cairo bakery, asking not to be named in full.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"My husband makes 6,000 pounds ($242) a month, which used to last us all month but now runs out in 10 days."</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">In a country heavily reliant on food imports, prices have also shot up for staples such as cooking oil and legumes, putting the financial squeeze on many of Egypt's 104 million people.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Rationing signs in big supermarkets now warn customers they can each purchase only three bags of rice, two bottles of milk and one bottle of oil.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Reda, a 55-year-old civil servant and hospital janitor who provides for her family of 13, said frozen meat had more than doubled in price and is "no longer an option".</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"Even with two salaries, there's a lot I just can't buy anymore."</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">- Scramble for dollars -</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Egypt's economy was hit hard after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last February unsettled global investors and led them to pull billions out of the North African country.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The war sent wheat prices spiralling, heavily impacting Egypt, one of the world's largest grain importers, and piling pressure on its foreign currency reserves.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">With costs driven up further by soaring global energy prices, official inflation topped 18 percent in November.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The central bank twice devalued the pound last year as the foreign currency crunch saw imported goods worth billions held up at its ports.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Amid the crisis, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government has been looking for foreign currency where it can.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Starting this month, tourists will have to pay for train tickets in dollars, said Transport Minister Kamel al-Wazir.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Many banks have limited foreign currency withdrawals and tripled credit card charges.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Even the pro-government TV talk show host Amr Adib voiced fury when he urged banks to allow Egyptians abroad to at least "withdraw enough money to take a taxi to the airport so they can come home".</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">- Suez Canal fund -</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Egypt has in the past decade tripled its foreign debt to $157 billion. It has $33.5 billion in foreign reserves, of which $28 billion are deposits from its wealthy Gulf allies.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The IMF loan programme, worth $3 billion over 46 months, is a drop in the bucket for Cairo whose debt service in 2022-2023 alone amounts to $42 billion.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Ratings agency Moody's ranks Egypt as one of the five countries most at risk of defaulting on its foreign debt.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Egypt's economy has long been dominated by powerful state and military-led enterprises.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"The Egyptian military, on whose support President Sisi is dependent, is the main beneficiary of the debt policy," said Stephan Roll of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">External debt has helped "to finance major projects in which they could earn significant money, namely large development projects entrusted to military engineers," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">As such, Roll said, Egypt's foreign debt policy has served to "consolidate the authoritarian regime".</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Under IMF pressure, Egypt is now seeking to make headway on some long-delayed privatisation schemes.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">A recent move to create a sovereign fund tied to the Suez Canal raised public fears that Egypt would lose sovereignty over the waterway, a major source of national pride.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Authorities were quick to reassure Egyptians that the canal is "not for sale," while a fund overseen by Sisi himself aims to leverage the canal's revenues to draw in foreign investment.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"When it comes to money, stay out of it," Sisi said recently. "I know how to handle it." AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>