Supply Minister Mohamed Abu Shady said that subsidies for bread and food commodities amount to more than LE35 billion, all financed by the state budget.
He said in a statement on Wednesday that the subsidies system needs to be improved so as to meet all the needs of low-income people and prevent waste.
Abu Shady met with the director of the Global Growth Policy Center in Brazil, Fabio Firas and Sahar al-Tawil, head of the Social Contract Center, to review the Brazilian experience in social protection for low-income people, as well as systems of conditional commodity and monetary subsidies that have been applied successfully in Brazil for 10 years.
Economists hailed the subsidy program in Brazil as it has been credited for helping to pull a significant portion of society out of poverty and into the middle class.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
