Short of Money, Egypt Sees Crisis on Fuel and Food -- New York Times
QALYUBEYA, Egypt — A fuel shortage has helped send food prices soaring. Electricity is blacking out even before the summer. And gas-line gunfights have killed at least five people and wounded dozens over the past two weeks.
The root of the crisis, economists say, is that Egypt is running out of the hard currency it needs for fuel imports. The shortage is raising questions about Egypt’s ability to keep importing wheat that is essential to subsidized bread supplies, stirring fears of an economic catastrophe at a time when the government is already struggling to quell violent protests by its political rivals.
Farmers already lack fuel for the pumps that irrigate their fields, and they say they fear they will not have enough for the tractors to reap their wheat next month before it rots in the fields.
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My Comment: Egypt has lived for decades on international aid and subsidized prices for domestic food and fuel basics. Those days are over now .... and with the unrest killing the tourist trade .... growing shortages in hard currency has only exacerbated a crisis situation into something far worse.