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EGYPT’S government ordered riot police and troops onto the streets yesterday amid fears of rioting over plummeting currency values and soaring prices.
Basic commodities such as sugar have become scarce in recent days.
Activists called for nationwide protests yesterday in a “revolution of the poor.”
Political parties have distanced themselves from the protest calls and authorities accused the banned Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups of engineering unrest.
The government floated the local currency and raised fuel prices in order to qualify for a £9.5 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
That loan was set to receive IMF approval yesterday, paving the way for the first payment of $2.75 billion (£2.2bn) to be made immediately.
Last Thursday, the Central Bank devalued the Egyptian pound from $8.8 to $13 and then let it float completely. Yesterday, the pound was trading at around 16 to the US dollar.
