Egypt's Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade raised the prices of most subsidized goods as of Monday.
Reuters reported that among the goods that rose in prices were a bottle of vegetable oil, which increased to 30 pounds ($0.97) from 25 pounds, and the price of a bag of sugar and rice weighing one kilogram rose to 12.6 pounds from 10.5 pounds.
More than 60 million people benefit from the subsidy system, under which each family with a ration card receives 50 Egyptian pounds ($1.62) per person per month to buy about 32 commodities, including pasta, flour and beans at subsidized prices, and the government provides heavily subsidized bread to more than 70 million out of 104 million citizens.
The government postponed plans to raise the price of subsidized bread, which has not changed in decades, after the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
Egypt, a major importer of basic commodities such as wheat and vegetable oils, is suffering from a foreign currency crisis that has led to a devaluation of the pound by nearly 50 percent against the dollar, a reduction in imports and a rise in urban inflation to 32.7 percent in March, much closer to its highest rate ever.
The Finance Ministry said last week it would raise funding for social protection programs by 48.8 percent to 529.7 billion pounds in the next fiscal year, while increasing food subsidies by 41.9 percent to 127.7 billion pounds.
Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy said most of the funding increases would be allocated to subsidize bread, and El Moselhy said last week that Egypt was seriously considering approving the use of local currencies of its commodity trading partners such as China, India and Russia in a bid to reduce the need for dollars.