Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy’s showdown with MPs dominated the talk shows yesterday. Pundits allocated considerable airtime to a heated, seven-hour long exchange in the House of Representatives yesterday in which majority and opposition MPs teamed up to grill El Moselhy for what they cast as his failure to get a grip on commodities prices amid soaring inflation.

MPs bombarded El Moselhy with accusations of failing to maintain oversight over retail-market prices and falling short of clamping down on price inflation of strategic commodities. Some MPs branded the Supply Ministry “a black-market ministry” and “the ministry of greedy retailers,” as covered by Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 13:34.)

El Moselhy stood his ground: “We will never go back to the socialist policies of the 1960s,” the minister said in response to calls by MPs for the ministry to enforce price controls on all basic commodities and goods. “We are a free economy,” El Moselhy said, adding that the government is focusing on making sure goods are readily available. He blamed rising prices on global volatility thanks to the effects of war in Ukraine, predicting that imported inflation will linger for the next 2-3 years.

There’s a shortage of ministry inspectors to oversee retail outlets across the country, Rep. Mohamed Salah told DMC in an interview (watch, runtime: 2:30.) Rep. Jihan Bioumy complained about discrepancies in prices of subsidized goods between different retailers and the soaring prices of strategic commodities, while Reps. Yasser Mounir and Mahmoud Badr criticized what they called the “random” withdrawal of ration cards from citizens.

REFRESHER- The Supply Ministry has moved to force retailers to clearly display the price of goods and is drawing up a list of some 10-15 strategic commodities for which it will publish suggested prices, but has stopped short of imposing obligatory price controls.

AND- President Abdel Fattah El Sisi urged the Madbouly government to speed up the release of all backlogged imports, especially production inputs, in a meeting with Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and Finance Minister Mohamed Maait yesterday, according to an Ittihadiya statement. Around 1.7 mn tons of animal feed is still stranded at our ports, while around 1.9 mn tons of feed production inputs have been released, Regional Center for Food and Feed Director Ahmed El Akazy told Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 4:09.) Masaa DMC’s Ramy Radwan also covered the story (watch, runtime: 0:50.)