Former Deputy Prime Minister and Al Shorouk columnist Ziad Bahaa El Din says floating the EGP was a move that was required immediately as the economy could not operate with “two prices” for one commodity. While this does not address why the EGP’s value was falling, it merely processes the problem through official channels. Bahaa El Din is more critical of the increase in fuel products’ prices. He says the timing and extent of increases could have been managed better to lessen the impact of the price shock. Additionally, he says the policies adopted in the last two years that drove up the budget deficit and public debt to GDP ratio, including mega projects, public spending, and involvement in investment projects, must be revised.

“Is visiting Iran a crime?” asks El Watan’s Khaled Montasser, who finds it baffling that the prospect of the Oil Minister doing so met with what he says was undue criticism. The two countries shared historical ties in the early-to mid-twentieth century, and Egypt is a “secular” state — what does the confessional difference between the two matter? The newspaper’s Emad Gad joins in on questioning why the shiaphobia (or a general fear of racial or religious differences) comes into play for the rumored visit, a practice history should have taught leads nowhere good.