Members of Chambers of Commerce confirmed  that The prices of most commodities varied between the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 until the end of the period after the liberalization of the exchange rate, which doubled the price of the dollar from 8.88 pounds to exceed the barrier of 17 pounds, which affected prices increased in some periods and stability in the other therefore the instability of commodity prices has negatively impacted sales in markets to decline between 25 to 80% according to  types of goods.

Eng. Ibrahim El-Araby, Deputy Chairman of the General Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Chairman of Cairo Chamber said that The dollar is one of the main elements in the cost of most goods, whether imported or local through the requirements of production, and sales in the market is subject to the financial capacity of the citizen and the extent of need for goods, as well as adding the various trading rings to the cost of goods and the mechanisms of supply and demand.

 He noted that the Chamber always monitors the market situation on a daily, weekly, monthly and also annually basis through the Observatory Prices and business Divisions Department will issue a Report of 2017 in various activities on the market situation of each sector, noting the availability of goods appropriately in various activities, which means the stability of the market during the current period.

Ahmed Yehia, Cairo Chamber’s board member and the head of the food division, said that prices have fluctuated upwards and downwards. Some of them have remained constant over the past year due to factors such as the price of the dollar, which witnessed instability especially at the beginning of last season. The decline in sales in the food sector due to the weakness of the purchasing power of citizens in the light of the devaluation of the pound against foreign currencies.