{"id":17630,"date":"2025-03-15T16:01:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T14:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17630"},"modified":"2026-10-08T05:23:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:23:52","slug":"ramadan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/ramadan-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Prices Eat Away at Pensions: How Egypt\u2019s Retirees Are Coping This Ramadan"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a Cairo market, Gihan moves between the grocery shelves, checking prices carefully before returning a small bag of nuts to its place. \u201cExpensive,\u201d she murmurs.<\/p>\n

The woman in her fifties remembers preparing for Ramadan without the same anxiety. She and her husband would buy meat, good-quality dates and nuts as part of the family\u2019s seasonal traditions. Since his retirement in 2019, however, their finances have changed sharply. After successive increases, his pension is EGP 5,600 a month, compared with the EGP 18,000 salary he received while working for the petroleum authority.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe pension barely covers the bills. Prices keep multiplying, and cooking oil alone needs its own budget. Nuts have become a luxury we dare not think about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Many pensioner households face the same adjustment: income falls after retirement while prices and family responsibilities continue to rise. Ramadan brings additional pressure through shared meals and family gatherings.<\/p>\n

The minimum pension announced for insured people whose service ends from January 1, 2025 is EGP 1,495. This is not a uniform payment received by every existing pensioner. As a benchmark, it is roughly a quarter of the EGP 6,000 minimum wage then in force for government employees and well below the private-sector minimum of EGP 7,000, effective from March 2025. The government-employee increase to EGP 7,000 was scheduled for July.<\/p>\n

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Retirement means cutting back<\/h2>\n

Gihan tries to save in advance of Ramadan. Ragaa Saad, who is in her sixties, searches for special offers. She relies on her own pension and the survivor\u2019s pension from her late husband, which she shares with a daughter who is still studying.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life was not like this before retirement,\u201d Ragaa says. \u201cI was an administrator at the Education Ministry, earning EGP 4,000, and my husband worked for the governorate. After 38 years of work, I retired on EGP 1,900. His pension started at EGP 2,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Successive increases have brought her pension to EGP 3,450 and her husband\u2019s survivor\u2019s pension to EGP 4,800. \u201cBut the increases do not keep up with prices. We used to live comfortably. Now we can barely afford the essentials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her concerns extend beyond day-to-day spending. While she and her husband were working, they helped three children marry. Preparations for her youngest daughter\u2019s marriage have now been delayed for two and a half years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can no longer save the way I used to. I had to join a rotating savings group and pay EGP 3,000 a month from the pension just so I can prepare for my daughter\u2019s marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gihan questions why wage floors rise while pensioners feel left behind. \u201cAs though being older means we have no responsibilities. People retiring today may still have children at school or university, marriage expenses and healthcare costs that increase with age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ragaa says medicines for her chronic conditions alone cost EGP 3,000 a month, before electricity and water bills. \u201cWe are not living in luxury. We are just trying to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

For families balancing limited pensions against growing expenses, even basic needs become a daily calculation. Seasons associated with additional spending make the gap more visible.<\/p>\n

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Why increases fail to restore purchasing power<\/h2>\n

Successive pension adjustments have raised nominal payments, but pensioners interviewed by Zawia3 say the gains disappear as living costs rise. The EGP 1,495 minimum for newly retiring eligible workers in January 2025 must be distinguished from the annual increase applied to existing pensions and from the minimum insurable wage used to calculate contributions.<\/p>\n

Under Social Insurance and Pensions Law No. 148 of 2019, the ordinary annual increase is linked to inflation but capped at 15%. It is a ceiling, not a guarantee that every annual increase must always equal 15%.<\/p>\n

The CAPMAS release for January 2025<\/a> recorded annual inflation across the country at 23.2%. The urban measure was 24%. These are different statistical series and should not be mixed. A decline in the inflation rate does not mean that prices have returned to earlier levels.<\/p>\n

The original reporting also cited increases for individual food categories, but its general CAPMAS link did not identify the corresponding release clearly enough to establish a consistent comparison period for all of them. What the families describe is the cumulative burden of repeated price rises, rather than a single month\u2019s change.<\/p>\n

Mahmoud, 61, took early retirement in 2013. His income had varied while he was working, but he considered it adequate. He says he never imagined that retirement would require such a substantial change in lifestyle.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy pension is now EGP 2,600. We used to gather as an extended family for Ramadan meals. Today I can barely invite my own children. Meat and basic ingredients are no longer within reach.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Economic researcher Mai Kabil tells Zawia3 that inflation absorbs annual pension increases. Her central concern is not only how high prices are, but how successive increases accumulate, making each year harder for households whose income does not keep pace.<\/p>\n

When inflation outstrips the pension adjustment, nominal income rises while purchasing power falls. Changes to the social insurance framework have not, in her assessment, removed that problem, particularly during periods requiring additional household spending.<\/p>\n

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Can a higher pension floor become reality?<\/h2>\n

Law No. 148 was adopted in August 2019. A study by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights<\/a> examined how its rules affect pensioners during an economic crisis, including the gap between inflation and the 15% ceiling.<\/p>\n

The study used the inflation surge in 2023 to illustrate that gap. It also considered how to protect the system\u2019s financial sustainability while providing additional support when exceptional price increases erode pensions.<\/p>\n

Roughly 11.5 million pensioners and beneficiaries, as cited in the reporting, are affected by the debate. Calls for a higher minimum seek an income sufficient for basic living expenses and healthcare, rather than occasional relief alone.<\/p>\n

Gihan, whose household depends on her husband\u2019s pension, feels that years of contributions have lost their value. \u201cThis was money deducted throughout working life. We could have invested it in deposits or businesses, but it went into the pension system. Now inflation has eaten away at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmed El-Araby, head of the General Federation of Pensioners\u2019 Unions, brought a legal action<\/a> seeking a minimum pension of EGP 6,000, matching the government minimum wage used in the claim. The proceedings had been deferred to March 2025. At this report\u2019s publication, the demand remained unresolved; filing the case did not itself create an entitlement to that amount.<\/p>\n

Kabil considers EGP 6,000 a fair objective in principle, given basic costs and healthcare needs. Implementing it, she says, requires attention to the labour market and social insurance system rather than simply announcing a figure.<\/p>\n

She points to limited insurance coverage and the practice of declaring earnings below their actual level. In the interview, she cites coverage of about 44% of wage workers, but the original text does not specify the reference year. Her argument is that a narrow contribution base and under-declared earnings weaken the system\u2019s ability to finance substantial increases.<\/p>\n

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For Kabil, a higher pension floor requires both adequate support for pensioners and a stronger system of contributions from formal employment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The EIPR study argues that a ceiling can help protect an insurance system during periods of very high inflation, but it should be accompanied by mechanisms enabling additional government support during crises. Otherwise, the burden of adjustment falls heavily on people who can no longer increase their earnings through work.<\/p>\n

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Waiting for exceptional support<\/h2>\n

The government has sometimes introduced additional payments to ease living costs. In September 2023<\/a>, the president announced that the exceptional grant for pensioners and beneficiaries would double from EGP 300 to EGP 600, covering about 11 million people. A separate cost-of-living allowance increase applied to state employees; the two beneficiary groups should not be conflated.<\/p>\n

Such measures provide some relief, but pensioners interviewed for this report say they cannot offset continuing increases in expenses. Before Ramadan, expectations of exceptional assistance often rise.<\/p>\n

In 2021, rumours of a special Ramadan pension grant circulated before the National Organisation for Social Insurance denied them. In February 2025, statements about a new social protection package again raised hopes of immediate support.<\/p>\n

The package announced in late February included a pension increase of up to 15% from July 2025, rather than an additional general pension payment before Ramadan. Further implementation details were to be announced by the social insurance authority.<\/p>\n

For Ragaa, the delay is the problem. Ramadan had already begun without an increase in her pension. Referring to the interval since the previous increase, she asks how a 15% adjustment could be enough after a year and four months.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe solution is a fair minimum pension, as there is for employees,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The demands extend beyond a temporary grant: a pension floor that reflects essential costs, adjustments that protect purchasing power and a sustainable system that honours years of contributions. For the households in this report, the measure of any increase is what remains after food, medicine, bills and family responsibilities have been paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pensioner households describe cutting back on Ramadan meals, borrowing for family expenses and spending much of their income on medicine as price rises outpace pension adjustments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[],"kateb":[18014],"class_list":["post-17630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics-en","kateb-menna-sayed"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0642\u062a\u0635\u0627\u062f-.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17631,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17630\/revisions\/17631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17630"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=17630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}