Sisi confirms cabinet reshuffle will be ‘very soon’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has confirmed in an interview with state newspapers that he will be reshuffling his cabinet soon.

“Yes, there will be a reshuffle and very soon…We will fix what needs fixing and improve performance,” Al-Sisi said in the interview without elaborating too much on how the reshuffle will look like.

Al-Sisi’s last cabinet reshuffle was in March last year when the Egyptian dictator swore in ten new ministers, including new ministers for finance and investment.

The move is seen to be a bid to improve Egypt’s social and economic conditions. Egypt’s tepid economy has been dealt a blow by an acute foreign currency crisis since the uprising in 2011 that drove away tourists and foreign investors.

Further woes were added when the Central Bank floated the Egyptian pound last November and the government pushed for economic reforms, such as fuel price hikes and the introduction of VAT, after securing a $12 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund.

Egypt’s growing instability has been attributed to the increased activities of insurgents in the Sinai who pledged allegiance to Daesh in 2014 and are blamed for the killings of hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police.