Back to the complete issue
Sunday, 6 December 2020

Egypt’s poverty rate falls for the first time in two decades

Egypt’s poverty rate decreased for the first time in 20 years in FY2019-2020, according to Capmas’ latest income and expenditure survey. The proportion of the population living below the poverty line — defined by the agency as anyone living on less than EGP 857 a month — fell to 29.7% during the past two fiscal years, having shot up almost five percentage points to 32.5% in FY2017-2018, the local press reports. The rate of extreme poverty decreased to 4.5% from 6.2% during the two-year period.

Incomes rise: The average annual net income for a family increased 15% to EGP 69.1k, with the urban population seeing an increase of 16.3% and people living in rural areas seeing a 13.3% rise. The adjusted poverty line for individuals was raised to EGP 857 from EGP 736 in FY2017-18, Capmas advisor Heba El Leithy said.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2021 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of Commercial International Bank (tax ID: 204-891-949), the largest private-sector bank in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; and Act Financial (tax ID: 493-924-612), the leading activist investor in Egypt; and Abu Auf (tax ID: 584-628-846), the leading health foodmaker in Egypt and the region.