Cairo – Mubasher: The value of subsidies disbursed under the Egyptian government’s ‘Takaful and Karama’ (solidarity and dignity) programme surged 42% year-on-year to EGP 13.2 billion in 2018, according to a report released on Thursday by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

However, the number of beneficiary households declined by 2% YoY to 2.2 million in 2018, CAPMAS’s report said, according to the Middle East News Agency.

The public sector pensions rose by 16.8% to EGP 72.9 billion during the fiscal year 2017/2018, compared to EGP 62.4 billion in the year-ago period.

The number of beneficiaries went up by 3.4% to 3.4 million in FY17/18, from 3.3 million a year earlier.