Despite Hona Al Assema’s Lamees Al Hadidi being off last night, the airwaves had plenty on offer to keep us busy, including some new economic metrics and more on subsidy reform from Finance Minister Amr El Garhy.

The government is committed to pursuing further economic reforms, but has no immediate plans to raise subsidized bread prices, El Garhy told TEN TV’s Amr Abdel Hameed. El Garhy noted that although each loaf costs EGP 0.55 to produce and is sold for EGP 0.05, the subsidy will remain in place for the time being, particularly as the government keeps an eye on the social safety net throughout ongoing reforms. He stressed that the program is partially geared towards undoing several years of damage, including the widening of the state budget deficit in the years following 2011 that led to inflation and exchange rates skyrocketing.

El Garhy also told Abdel Hameed that Egypt’s external debt levels have reached USD 81 bn but the government has a debt strategy in place for the coming fiscal year. He noted that gas discoveries coming online will help to curb the price of petroleum products (watch, runtime: 2:12:13).

Railway ticket prices will almost certainly be raised within two weeks’ time, Transport Minister Hisham Arafat told Kol Youm’s Amr Adib. Arafat said that holding off on the increases any longer is simply not feasible as the Egyptian National Railways (ENR) continues to incur significant losses, including EGP 200 mn since the last hike in oil prices back in July. Much to Adib’s astonishment, Arafat said that the ENR is indeed required to pay the Oil Ministry for its fuel consumption, but noted that the ENR has been unable to make these payments due to its financing gap (watch, runtime: 3:40).

Metro tickets will also see an increase in May, at which point tickets will range between EGP 3 and 6 depending on the distance traveled (we have more on the proposed pricing schemes in the Speed Round) (watch, runtime: 1:26). Arafat also said that the metro is in dire need of maintenance works, particularly Line 1, which is susceptible to breaking down at any moment (watch, runtime: 2:12).

The Supply Ministry’s purge of the subsidy system’s database found over 3 mn Kramers are alive and mooching well, assistant minister Amr Abdel Moneim told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa. The ministry’s purge also unveiled corruption from subsidized commodities vendors, who manipulated the system by using smartcards that never made it to the intended beneficiaries (watch, runtime: 2:01).

Over on Al Hayah Al Youm, Tourism Minister Yehia Rashed told host Tamer Amin that one of the sector’s biggest achievement over the past few years was its focus on developing religious tourism, which should see a further boom once the Holy Family trail is opened to visitors. The ministry is still working to bring tourist arrivals back to pre-2011 levels, and will launch campaign to highlight the positive developments Egypt has undergone in recent years to lure back tourists. Rashed also attributed last year’s improving tourism numbers to his ministry’s international campaigns (watch, runtime: 42:49).