High oil, wheat prices to burden Egypt with over $10 bln -finance minister

Oil prices staying at $122 per barrel will cost the Egyptian budget $7.2 billion, Finance Minister Mohamed Maiit told CNBC Arabia on Sunday. Maiit said that higher global wheat prices and pressure on the Egyptian pound would burden the government with an additional $3 billion, CNBC reported.

Egypt has been suffering from a shortage of foreign currency since the coronavirus pandemic chased away many tourists, international portfolio investors withdrew funds and the Ukrainian crisis pushed up commodity import prices.