Gov’t looking into setting natgas, electricity prices twice a year for all industries: The government will revise the price at which it sells natural gas and electricity to factories every six months, Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik told reporters yesterday, according to Reuters’ Arabic service. Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly has put together a committee that would assess energy prices on a biannual basis and determine whether to shift prices for industry, Tawfik said. This decision expands on an earlier move that saw the government lower the price of natural gas or the cement, metallurgy, and ceramics industries and agree to review it every six months.

Industry has been lobbying for a flexible pricing mechanism for weeks. The Egyptian Federation of Investors Associations (EFIA) said earlier this month it will ask the Finance Ministry to introduce a monthly rate akin to the old customs exchange rate which was scrapped in September. Although the EFIA wanted gas prices to be reviewed on a monthly basis, it appears that the government is compromising with a biannual review. The move is designed to offset the recent surge in operating costs, and boost output and exports.