Feature: Egyptians suffer from price hikes during Eid al-Adha-Xinhua

Feature: Egyptians suffer from price hikes during Eid al-Adha

Source: Xinhua| 2022-07-10 04:45:44|Editor: huaxia

CAIRO, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The festival of Eid al-Adha this year is not happy for Mahmoud Ahmed as he is unable to buy new clothes for his four children due to the high prices of commodities in Egypt's capital Cairo.

"My kids had to wear old clothes because I could not buy them new ones for the feast. The prices are unbelievable," Ahmed, a 38-year-old delivery man with a restaurant, told Xinhua.

Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, is one of the most anticipated celebrations in the Islamic world.

By tradition, families should ritually slaughter an animal, usually sheep or cow, during the four-day festival as long as they can afford it. People also always buy new clothes for kids and prepare sweets to serve visiting relatives.

During the festival, well-to-do families sacrifice animals and distribute the meat to low-income families, friends and relatives.

"I didn't buy a sacrificial animal because I cannot afford it," said Ahmed, adding "even my friends who used to sacrifice could not buy a sheep or a goat this year because of their skyrocketing prices amid the inflation."

Ahmed plans to spend a good time with his family at a public park as "the children need to enjoy the feast."

Egypt's annual inflation rate rose to 15.3 percent in May compared with 4.9 percent in the same month last year, according to Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.

To curb the inflation, the Egyptian government adopted a parcel of economic measures to absorb shocks from the global inflationary pressures amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, the Central Bank of Egypt decided to raise key interest rates by one percent for the first time since 2017. And the Egyptian cabinet set a fixed price for unsubsidized bread for three months as of April in an effort to ensure food security for those who mainly depend on bread in their meals.

"Demand for sacrificial livestock is very low this year," Abdu Mohammed, a livestock seller in Cairo, told Xinhua.

"People cannot afford the animals at these high prices," Mohammed attributed the price hikes of livestock to the inflated prices of imported fodders and medicines.

Mohammed noted that he has only sold less than half of last year's sales until now, expressing hope that he could sell more during the remaining days of the feast.

According to Egypt's Chamber of Commerce, the prices of sacrificial animals in 2022 increased by 30 percent compared to last year.

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