Hatem Saleh Says, Prices Rise Necessary For Filling Budget Deficit

The government’s tendency to put up the prices on some commodities is required at the current time as a method to provide the liquidity necessary to meet the budget deficit, said Hatem Saleh, Egyptian Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade; underscoring that the measures are being taken by the government are aiming at not prejudice to the low income.

On the sideline of signing cooperation protocol between the Industrial Training Council (ITC) and the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) for financing SMEs, Saleh said the government is aiming at gathering the taxes from the rich and avoiding the low-income.

The minister has criticized the sit-ins and suspending work in the factories, by which it leads to declining the economy; affirming that he is all for peaceful protests without suspending.