Gov’t considers flight discounts to support tourism sector: The government is considering including domestic tourism in its recently launched consumer spending initiative by offering discounts on domestic flights and other means of transportation to support the country’s ailing tourism sector, Al Mal reports, citing unnamed sources. The report comes just days after the government pushed ahead with a new program that aims to catalyze bns in consumer spending to drive economic growth in this time of corona.

Background: The government launched its “Not Too Expensive for You (Ma Yeghlash Aleik)” program at the beginning of this week to stimulate some EGP 125 bn-worth of consumer spending. Citizens can obtain discounts of 15-25% on a range of goods including electronics, appliances, clothes and furniture, while ration cards will be topped up by EGP 200 per person up to a maximum of EGP 1k per family. The program is nominally supposed to run for the next three months but sources said this week that the discounts will remain in place until at least January 2021.