Roundup: Egypt remains largest tobacco market in Arab world depsite steps to reduce smoking

The Egyptian government has recently taken serious measures to reduce smoking. However, the country is still the largest tobacco market in the Arab world, and has one of the top 10 per capita cigarette consumption.

Last year, an Egyptian study revealed that 24.4 percent of Egypt's 90 million populations are smokers, one of the highest in the world.

According to the study, smoking was one of the main reasons of deaths in the country, adding that 46 percent of adult men in Egypt are smokers, while the number of female smokers is one the rise.

In July last year, the government has raised sales tax on cigarettes by 50 percent. Under the decree, prices of local cigarettes went up by an average of 22 percent.

Cigarettes are the most common form of tobacco consumption in Egypt, with an estimated twenty billion cigarettes smoked annually in the country.

In Egypt, the law on tobacco control prohibits smoking in health and education facilities, government venues, sports and social clubs, youth centers, as well as public transport.

However, price hikes have not prevent smokers from buying cigarettes.

"I will always buy cigarettes even if the prices are tripled," Saber Mohammed, a 36-year-old security guard from Cairo, told Xinhua.

The unmarried man said he spends 600 Egyptian pounds (78.6 U.S. dollars) of his 1500 pounds (196.5 dollars) monthly salary on buying local cigarettes.

"I have been a smoker since I was 19. It is not easy to quit smoking and I do not really want to give up smoking," he added as he lit an Egyptian-made cigarette.

He said his family members and friends urged him to quit smoking so as to save money, but the middle-aged man said that even if he were to save all his salary, he still needs at least 10 years to get married.

Since former President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, Egypt's economy has been marred by political turmoil, protests and political polarization.

The country's annual growth rate had for a time hovered around two percent, with sharp declines of foreign currency reserve, FDI and revenues of tourism sector. The poor suffered from rising prices and unemployment.

"Prices of everything have skyrocketed, not only cigarettes. Cigarettes might be the cheapest among all goods," Mohammed said desperately.

A recent official Egyptian study finds that 57 percent of smokers in Egypt are day-waged laborers, while 25 percent of smokers in the North African country are uneducated.

Egyptian Minister of Health Adel Adawi said his ministry has taken a set of procedures to reduce smoking as well as lessening secondhand smoking harms.

His comments came during an event to observe the World No Tobacco Day which on Sunday.

The Egyptian government announced in February that the latest tax on cigarettes' sale would provide a sum of money ranging from five billion to 5.5 billion Egyptian pounds yearly, adding that a large portion of it would pour into the healthcare budget. Endit